Rear Shocks and ALB lever

My OEM rear shocks finally died at 69,000 - one blowing oil everywhere. So I ordered Bilstein replacements from Europarts-SD. They were cheaper than the Monroes, and also hold the coveted Dr. A recommendation for passenger vans. I thought "no trouble for a DIY, after all, I have done it dozens of times, and it is only 4-bolts." And it was a nice, sunny day on my cement driveway, only 31 degrees, gusts to 30mph with blowing duff.

First - the lower bolts are 18mm and the uppers are 21mm. I have DIY tools - not professional sets. Of my 4-metric sets (2 each of wrenches and sockets) not one came with 18mm, and only one 21mm socket. That is OK for the 21mm, as the 13/16 works fine. So I had to put all the tools away for security and run off to Sears to get new wrenches and sockets.

On return the right lower nut was frozen - dam, broke the new 18mm socket. But it loosened it, and I luckily bought 2 (standard and impact). Now the bolt won't come out. 5lb sledge and it still would not budge. So I cut the shock out of its lower bracket. Put on the list need to go find a new 12mm x 70mm bolt.



Now the upper nut and bolts. For both sides, access is easy and range of motion limited. The nut appears to be accessible with a long extension from the outside of the van.



But for a one-man job, access has to be from underneath. By putting my breaker bar on it, I was able to get a foot on the bar and break it loose.




With the rachet there is about 1/8 range movement on the right side and a little more on the left side. The upper right nut and bolt came off easy. But the upper left bolt appeared to require the removal of the clip and the ALB lever. No luck. While the clip came off, the ALB gave no sign of movement.

I thought I was doing something wrong, so out of desperation, I actually read the Service Manual, only to find out that I was doing it correctly. The ALB was frozen. 05103824AA A0034310212



The upper left bolt (item 3 in the diagram above) has a 2-sided mid-bolt head - 21mm or (in my case) 13/16in. With that I was able to remove the nut from the outside of the frame. The ALB lever is connected to two flexible fittings, and there is a second lever made of some plastic material that is fortunately flexible that connects the metal ALB arm with the axle. Given all the problems with frozen nuts, I was not inclined to go after those nuts to disconnect the metal from the plastic arms. After removing the spring, I was able to rotate the whole ALB-bolt-shock as a single unit to remove the bolt from the frame, then rotate down to the ground past the ABS lines visible in the picture below. [Note that these pictures were taken after the new Bilsteins were installed -who would have thought replacing shocks required documentation or a heads-up???]




Once I had the ALB-bolt-shock upside down and hanging off the plastic ALB arm, I was able to remove the shock. But the bolt was frozen in the ALB. By holding the metal ALB arm with Channel Locks (to keep the pressure off the plastic arm), a wrench on the 2-sided head and WD-40 to provide rotational motion and lubrication, and a hammer (as an ape, I regret not having a prehensile tail of a monkey) I was able to pound the bolt out of the ALB arm.

Below is what I found - a very corroded bolt that did not not clean up well after wire brushing. Further, it appeared that the corrosion had moved under the plastic bushing.



I greased everything up, put the bolt and shock back in. Then I had to hammer the ALB arm back on. Yah, right - I managed to install it incorrectly (excuse: it was getting cold and it was way past dark). So I had to take it off again. Fortunately, because of the grease and other work, it took only a little over a minute as opposed to the hour plus the first time.

So, after going to the store to find a new 12mm bolt, I am back and running after 6 hours of work to remove 4 nuts and bolts and 2 shocks.

hkpierce said:

And it was a nice, sunny day on my cement driveway, only 31 degrees, gusts to 30mph with blowing duff.

Click to expand...

You must be .

The only time I've ever said 31 degrees was nice was right after I experienced 10 or below temperatures. It was probably colder with the wind chill and the concrete floor.

I actually wanted to say, "what the heck is an ALB lever?"

This is something new to me because, I don't have it on my 2006.

The manual says it's on the left side. This is my left side.

And I don't think I left it out after putting it back together.

DISCUSSION ON ALB LEVER CONTINUES HERE:

Aqua Puttana said:

OK. I now know what ALB stands for. What's the origin of "sticky beak".

Mr. hkpierce,
I can relate to the "simple job" going wrong as we have salted roads around here. That just rusts everything.

Another trick I use is to cover everything that has threads or you don't want to rust with heavy duty wheel bearing grease. I smear it on brake lines, bolts, transmission lines, beginning rust spots on oil pans..... everywhere. It doesn't look pretty, but it makes a big difference over time. Even on already rusted stuff over months the grease will creep it's way in and loosen things up. Thanks for the write-up.

Click to expand...

After 12 years with a sailboat in the West Indies I've had a few (hundred) bouts with rusted parts (just imagine spraying down your Sprinter everyday with salt-water and you get he idea) .
A few tips from the marine industry .
Instead of bearing-grease, try a spray-on anti-corrosive coating like "CRC Corrosion Inhibitor", "Boeshield T-9" or "Lear Corrosion Block" . They penetrate better and have chemical additives that are specifically formulated to inhibit rust. Spray such an inhibitor on threads before use and it will almost guarantee you can undo it later .
For getting rust off a bolt or other steal part use muriatic acid or a combo-acid product like "On & Off" by Marykate (has muriatic, oxalic and phosphoric acid). Your use of penetrating solvent is good; you might also try dripping acid on the threads in conjunction with the penetrating solvent as the acid devolves rust fast (can be hard to use in tight spaces and be sure to wear protective gloves).
I have often replaced under-body bolts with stainless steal fasteners. When I replaced my Sprinter's rear shocks with after-market Konis, I used SS bolts/nuts from West Marine (all the products mentioned above are available at West Marine; all WM branch stores have a large SS fastener selection with both US and metric sizes).
Marine products are almost always better than counterparts you might find at automotive chain-stores and/or RV supply stores; having a West Marine catalog on-hand is a handy thing. A small price premium for a better part is well worth it for jobs where labor is the major component!

KL2BE,
Thanks for the ideas. I've used stainless fasteners and parts on exhaust systems for years. Grease has always worked on the non-heated parts to keep them free so I never went to ss on those. I'm familiar with CRC and other corrosion inhibitors around boats. Never thought to cross it over to automotive applications. Probably a combination of my cheapness, availability of bearing grease, and my persistent ocular rectalitis. Thanks for providing the tips and a different direction of thinking.

I finally received and installed the new ALB/shock post for my '02 Sprinter. Here are the part numbers. Note that the Berry's part catalog shows the post as part of the right side of the van, not the left. So it is a bit confusing; but the picture is clear enough to know that it is the appropriate part.

There are two bushings on the ALB lever. Only one of mine required replacement. The rust actually deformed the plastic, and the lever's action seem to have galled out more. Note that you have the order the bushings separately.

It is all greased up, and the lever moves more freely now.

KLB2E,
There is only one flaw in your idea to replace underbody fasteners with Stainless Steel (CRES) austenitic fasteners from West Marine.
The SS (CRES) 300 series (303-321 SS) non-magnetic passivated fasteners you get from West Marine (or any other supplier) do not
have the correct/appropriate tensile and yield strength of even grade 5 Steel fasteners.
I have fought this battle my entire career working on US Navy Radar pedestals that are installed outside on aircraft carriers and
other surface combatant ships.
Everyone wants to use SS (CRES) passivated fasteners, but they simply do not have the strength to replace properly engineered
heat treated (Grade 5-8) steel fasteners.
If you re-engineer the assembly, and use appropriately "up-sized" stainless (CRES) fasteners to meet or exceed the original strength
requirements, then yes, replacement/substitution of Graded steel fasteners with SS (CRES) fasteners is perfectly OK.
Substitution of 80,000 ksi steel bolts with SS (CRES) fasteners with a <= 60,000 ksi strength is not such a good idea.
So, for access covers, non-stressed (either tensile or shear) joints it's perfectly OK to substitute SS CRES) but for engineered joints
needing either the tensile or shear strength of the original steel part, it becomes pretty risky, especially when considering you and
your family may be riding in the Sprinter when the fastener fails, or the liability if it fails and you have a crash with another vehicle.
Roger

While I suspected my front shocks were the culprit, after 4 years and about 60000 [note start date of thread], I decided to also replace the rear Bilsteins at the same time as the front shocks.

While neither shock seemed bad, the left one had a strange deformation on the plastic boot that could have been either heat or chemical related.



The KYB replacements' boot is metal.

Heat from friction?