Airbag and Coil Spring Replacement 1984 Chevy P30.

[Stripe]

Okay, so, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. 
Got my coil springs Thursday the air bags on Monday and Tuesday I installed them both at the same time.
As you can see, it was a nice and SUNNY day.. (We'll revisit that statement at the end of this post  )

Tools used were 3 ton jackstand, 2.5 ton floor jack, wheel chocks for rear wheels, EDIT:new one and two inch cotter pins, SLEDGE HAMMER(can't stress that one enough), Buffalo Tools 12 volt impact wrench, a mix of metric AND SAE socket and box end wrenches in 1/2 inch and 3/8ths drive (for the lower ball joint either 29mm or 1 1/8inch), torque wrench, hammer, anti seize and some wd-40.
Oh, and lots of rags.. (and towels but that's not until the end)


Here you can see I have the front end up and ready to go to work.

It helps that I have leveling jacks. Good for quick up then as a sort of jackstand, but I have a jackstand in place as well.

Tire off, and jack under lower control arm.

This keeps it from all popping open when nuts and bolts are removed.

Here I have already removed the tie rod (you can swing it up and out of the way here easily), remember to remove the cotter pins from the castle nuts and have already loosened the lower ball joint castle nut.  (sledge hammer helps here, give both a hard tap to loosen it).

Also, you can see I am about ready to remove the sway bar bracket.  Also, don't forget to remove the lower shock mounting bolt.

Removing the sway bar bracket.

At this point I had already popped the lower ball joint and lowered the arm just a bit.

Sway bar bracket removed. Lower arm dropped a bit more.

As you see, the spring just tipped out. Easy removal. (Lots o grease here btw)

New spring and helper in place and all connections torqued(around 90, adjust up to align pin hole not more that 130 ft/lbs) and pinned.

The control arms have indents to match where the spring aligns so make sure you clean out the lower arm of debris, I put anti seize on the top and bottom of the springs in case I had to spin them to align them. Then I used the floor jack to press it all back together again.

Now the drivers side

This side was way more oily and greasy..  Everything is the same here as the other side as far as disassembly.

Tie rod off and out of the way.

Again, the jack to take the load.

Wide open after everything is removed.  I cleaned this up after this shot.

The "notch" for the spring is at the top or inner side(toward center of RV) of the arms hole.

And with the magic of not having pics in between the previous pic and this one, POOF! all together again, almost.(Steering rod and nuts and bolts not back in place yet).

Eat your heart out Industrial Light and Magic!

The finished job..

I put 60 PSI into each bag when I was done.  Just enough to assist but not lift it much.

My gir sitting on her own two front feet again..  <choke> It get's me right here in the chest! <sniff>

Now I can't hide the spare ignition key on the top of the tire for the lot owner anymore.

Took this pic as a spring and bag comparison.

Top was from starboard side, center from port side and bottom is the port side replacement.  All were nearly the same length. Keystone effect makes it look like new one is longer.  The old ones were shorter when first dropped out, but I think they actually stretched out while sitting, lol.. The middle bag was basically destroyed by petroleum products when the engine was still leaking. It was the worse of the two.

Now to revisit that "Sunny day" statement...

The storm basically took a lot of weather folks by surprise.  I was just about done on this side when BAM all of a sudden it started raining.  I grabbed my small 10'x10' awning and hooked a side of it to my side view mirror so as to not let the wind take it.  I had the awning as far forward as it could go because the wind was still pushing rain a bit sideways.  I still got wet but not as wet as I would have gotten without the awning.  When I completed this side, I had to grab all tools take them inside and wipe them down.  I still got soaked because of the running from side to side.  By the time I got the awning dropped and under the RV awning, there was a pond under the RV (see next pic as to why.

This was wave FOUR of the downpour, it would stop and start again as I was finishing up.
poor pups were not happy, the husky was okay,not happy but okay but the Dutchy HATES thunder. I had to go and close the windows on the Rover as the seats were getting wet and the dogs had no safe haven from the rain unless I did.

Good think I had a snorkel installed huh??    Suffice it to say, thank goodness I had dry clothes(Sorry Oldrocknroller, madathlon and anyone else that was in the gearbox as I was texting from inside the RV after the rain  W% ) and towels in the RV...

Anyway, all in all it was a decently easy job to accomplish with the exception of having to go to O'Reilly's for a bigger socket.  I can definitely see how this could have been a bigger pain in the you-know-what and taken a LOT longer if I had not had leveling jacks to speed up the job of getting the front end up.

I hope this helps others do this.

Fredric

EDIT(thanks oldrocknroller for pointing this out to me):  I inspected all the rubber boots before and after the install.  In pics 8 and 9 it looks as if there is missing rubber when in fact it was just great big gobs of grease.

[M & J]

Phenomenal job. You make it look so easy.


Did you do a before and after measurement of the wheel well height to see exactly how much the new springs raised the front?

[Stripe]

EDIT(thanks oldrocknroller for pointing this out to me):  I inspected all the rubber boots before and after the install.  In pics 8 and 9 it looks as if there is missing rubber when in fact it was just great big gobs of grease. And don't forget new one and two inch cotter pins.

I did infact do a measurement.  Just over four inches!

Fredric

[Madathlon]

I can NOT stress this enough. Since you removed and reinstall ball joint and tie rod end you NEED to get a  alignment. Even if you used the old part they never go back together the same and can change the alignment in bad ways.

Great work otherwise

[M & J]

I tried to tell him Madathlon. Kids these days.....  D:oH!


He said he's going to start calling around getting prices... 

[Stripe]

He did, and I will.. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Nice job!  I put in new air bags on ours, but didn't bother with new coil springs...I figured the front is sitting so much higher than the back already it would be counterproductive...lol!

Kev

[Stripe]

The cool part Kevin, is that I only put in enough air to augment but not lift the front.  I like the fact that my freezer bubble level is nearly a bullseye now..

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep.  60psi is about ideal for our vintage Holiday Ramblers.  That's what we run with.

Kev

[Stripe]

Great NAVY minds think alike...   

[Stripe]

I realized I did not post what bags I purchased or a link to the merchant I bought them from.

Air Lift Springs Air Bag, Air Lift 1000. The price is for a pair. They also came with replacement connector lines.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-wheel-covers/air-lift-springs-air-bag.htm

[TripleJ]

I just got my new airbags in the mail today.  Here's a picture of the old one next to the new one, see if you can figure out which one is the old one.

[Oz]

You mean the one on the right wasn't still usable?   :)rotflmao

[Stripe]

 :)rotflmao

[M & J]

Do I get more than 1 guess?

[moonlitcoyote]

$83/pair? WOW, wish I could afford that right now. I really need to change out my front bags as they do not hold any air with all the huge holes in them.

[starrebel]

Does anyone know if these are the airlift 81560 and if it will fit a 1989 Itasca spirit 22ft class a. Thanks

[Lefty]

I used the airlift part # 81560, on our '88 Georgie Boy. They fit perfectly in place of the originals. So that part number should fit yours as well.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

SD Springs indicates they do

http://www.sdtrucksprings.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=81560&gclid=CMmL1r7luMECFcNQ7AodBW4ALA

Dave

[starrebel]

Thanks guys, Just ordered them. One of the fronts is bad. Should be here the 22nd. Now for all the fun. I just can't wait

[starrebel]

Was able to have my fun. Friday got old ones out in about 2hrs. Saturday got new ones in in about three hours. Hope I never have to do that again. If I do I will replace the springs at the same time. Thanks for all the help. I couldn't have done it with all the information I found on here and my wife.