How to Replace Rear Shocks 2002-09 GMC Envoy

Okay, friends, one of the first things we need to do is safely raise and support the vehicle, so your wheel's off the ground. Once you've done that, we're gonna come right here to your center cover. Use a nice little pry bar, and go ahead and pop this off. Now that we've done that, we're gonna remove all 6 of our 19-millimeter lug nuts and take the wheel off.

Now that we have the wheel off of here, we have a nice clear view of the rear shock. We're gonna start by removing this 18-millimeter bolt right here, and then we'll just start it back in just a few threads. Okay, so that's pretty good right there. It's pretty much ready to come out. At this point, let's make our way down to the bottom.

So for the next step, if you're working on a lift and you're jacking it up by the frame of the vehicle, what you're also gonna need to do is go ahead and put something underneath the differential so you can bring this up a little bit to take the pressure off the shock bolts. Now I'm gonna use my 18-millimeter wrench to hold this side of the bolt, and I'll remove this 18-millimeter nut. There it is, friends.

Okay, friends, it's time to install our new shock. One of the first things you need to do when it comes time to installing your shock is to make sure you charge it up. Let's get right down on the ground. Okay, we have our shock on the ground here, facing straight up and down. I've got it securely between my feet so it can't slide out on me. I'm gonna carefully press this down until it bottoms out, and then I'll let it completely rise up. After it's done that, I'll repeat the process another three to four times.

Okay, so we've got it all charged up. Let's go ahead and put it up into the vehicle. We're gonna grab onto these bolts. Make sure they're in decent enough condition. If the threads need to be cleaned up, go ahead and clean them up. The shorter bolt is gonna go up at the top, so we'll go ahead and start that one in, just a few threads.

Moving along to the bottom, at this point, you might notice that the holes just don't line up. If for some reason, the hole for the differential is higher than the shock, that's really not too big of a deal because you could just compress the shock slowly and meet up with the holes. If it's in the other direction, what might you have to do? Maybe you have to jack up a little bit more on the frame or maybe a little bit more on the differential to make it so it matches up. Grab your nut. Start it on there. All right, let's bottom everything out and then torque it down. Go ahead and torque those shock nuts to 59 foot-pounds. Let's do the same to the other.

All right, let's get the wheel up on here. Start on all your lug nuts, bottom them out, and then we'll torque them to 103 foot-pounds. Let's torque these in a crisis cross manner. Now it's gonna be time to put on your center cover. If you were to look at the backside, you're gonna see something that looks a lot like a valve stem. Line that up with your valve stem. Then just give it a nice loving bonk, make sure it's completely secured, take it for a road test.