I need to replace the shocks on the rear of my town and country, it's a 2001. The process seems easy enough and I just bought an impact wrench and want to use it for quick bolt removal. I need to purchase the sockets and I noticed the sets available at my local store are missing some sizes, namely the 18MM which is used on the front sway bar end links. Since I know that size is used elsewhere on the vehicle, I am wondering if anyone can tell me what size the bolt heads are on the rear shocks. I can't seem to easily find this information and the Hayes manual I have isn't helpful in this regard.

Thanks in advance!

 

It is indeed 18 mm. Top is an 18 mm bolt; bottom is an 18 mm bolt with an 18 mm nut. So you need an 18 mm socket and an 18 mm spanner. You will likely need an extension too if using an impact gun for the top bolt: look and see if your gun will fit onto the nut without it.

PS don't forget when you re-assemble, do the bolts up loosely, lower the vehicle so it sits on the ground, then tighten with the weight on the tires.

Happy Motoring.

 

Hi, not sure here but some Voyagers have self levelling rear shocks and if yours hasn't got them see if you can get a pair as they are good when carrying loads.
Try a dismantlers for recently fitted ones.
And beware your supplier is likely to give you normal ones.

 

I am pretty sure mine were not self leveling, though they seemed to be functional when I pulled them off. None the less I use coupon codes at my local advance auto parts and paid a whopping $15 each for the ones I put on. My van has 200K on it and they were Chrysler shocks, so I doubt they had ever been changed.

Interestingly enough, I changed the shocks without even jacking the car up off the ground. I realized when I went to jack the rear end up, that I couldn't get it high enough off the ground to get the tires off. How is it that you get this van high enough to get the tires off? The left side has the gas tank hugging hte frame, so it was going to be problematic to get a jack stand setup there. An no way was jacking the car up behind the tires going to lend me any success.

Basically I strung some extensions together to get the top bold off of hte struts and I used a breaker bar with 18MM on the bottom nut and used my torque wrench to get to the bottom bolt and was able to torque it off. I then compressed the new struts to get them back on. Was not terrible although I was a little frusterated I couldn't jack the car up properly.

Thank you both for your input.

 

I guess the simple "no duh" answer is to jack up the by the axle, where the two stands would be placed. I have done quite a bit of work on my own cars and never have jacked a car up by the axle, but I guess it is needed in some cases where the vehicle sits high and typical jacks and stands can't be easily used.

Onto the valve cover gaskets next weekend. Watched a good clip on youtube about taking out the windshield wiper cowl so the rear of the engine is easy to get to.