JohnOfTheJungle
Member
I swapped out my rear shocks today. It’s the 3rd time it’s been done, the first 2 times I took it to a shop and it’s legit the only thing I’ve taken the runner to a shop for because it’s such a pain in the ass.
The last time I took it to the shop the mechanic quoted me 2 hours at $100/hr. He said it took him 6 hrs and charged me $400 - JUST TO SWAP THE REAR SHOCKS. He also said to never bring it back for that job again because he wouldn’t do it anymore.
So I figured this time I’d do it myself, I didn’t care what it took. We all know there’s hardly any room to work up there, but really the biggest problem with changing 5100’s is that it’s really hard to keep the shaft from spinning. There is an Allen key spot at the top but that quickly stripped out.
What finally did end up working for me was using 2 sets of vise grips + gorilla glue super glue gel to grip the shaft (stop laughing).
I also used some channel locks to turn the screw at the end of the vise grip handles to continue to tighten them to a ridiculous level of tightness. For the other shock instead of super glue I used silicon tape, that worked also, really anything to help the vise grips grip the metal.
For the bolt on top of the shock I used a ratchet + extended length 6pt 17mm socket to turn the nut at the top of the shock (+plenty of pblaster). However, for the most part I used the vise grips to turn the shaft to loosen it while holding the nut steady with the socket on top.
After doing all of that I was able to get the shocks out and they’re still in good shape to be resold.
Kind of a boring post for a pretty low level job, but I really couldn’t find anyone posting on here about how to do this. The usual advice is just to cut the shock in half, or if you’re lucky and don’t have a shitty design like the 5100 then there is a shock body you can grip and turn.
Hope this helps someone in the future
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The last time I took it to the shop the mechanic quoted me 2 hours at $100/hr. He said it took him 6 hrs and charged me $400 - JUST TO SWAP THE REAR SHOCKS. He also said to never bring it back for that job again because he wouldn’t do it anymore.
So I figured this time I’d do it myself, I didn’t care what it took. We all know there’s hardly any room to work up there, but really the biggest problem with changing 5100’s is that it’s really hard to keep the shaft from spinning. There is an Allen key spot at the top but that quickly stripped out.
What finally did end up working for me was using 2 sets of vise grips + gorilla glue super glue gel to grip the shaft (stop laughing).
I also used some channel locks to turn the screw at the end of the vise grip handles to continue to tighten them to a ridiculous level of tightness. For the other shock instead of super glue I used silicon tape, that worked also, really anything to help the vise grips grip the metal.
For the bolt on top of the shock I used a ratchet + extended length 6pt 17mm socket to turn the nut at the top of the shock (+plenty of pblaster). However, for the most part I used the vise grips to turn the shaft to loosen it while holding the nut steady with the socket on top.
After doing all of that I was able to get the shocks out and they’re still in good shape to be resold.
Kind of a boring post for a pretty low level job, but I really couldn’t find anyone posting on here about how to do this. The usual advice is just to cut the shock in half, or if you’re lucky and don’t have a shitty design like the 5100 then there is a shock body you can grip and turn.
Hope this helps someone in the future
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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