Below are some notes on replacing the front shock absorbers on 1995-2002 ford crown victorias, mercury grand marquis, and lincoln town cars.

A gabriel ultra front shock absorber with the hardware on the left



The hardware out of the bag







And the hardware installed on the shock absorber



Replacing the front shock absorbers in these cars is relatively straight forward. But around here, the top stud and nut which retain the shock absorber to the vehicle's frame are often rusted together. There are a few methods to dealing with this issue:
-cut off the top shock absorber fastener using abrasives
-use an acetylene torch to cut off the nut and a portion of the shock absorber stud
-snap off the top shock absorber stud by rocking back/forth repeatedly with a long extension bar and socket



On the passenger's side of the car, be careful not to damage the air conditioning evaporator lower liquid line when removing the top shock absorber nut





On the driver's side of the car, you'll have to work around the antilock brake lines





Unless you have a stripped crown vic without antilock brakes







For installation, a ratcheting gear wrench with flexhead is useful for installing the top nut.

A pneumatic air ratchet speeds up the installation of the bolts which retain the shock absorber to the lower control arm. Do not use a pneumatic air impact wrench as this tool can easily strip the threads out of the shock absorber mounting area in the control arm.



A 1997 crown victoria with the drivers side shock absorber removed







And the shock absorber to be installed



The self tapping bolts that retain the shock absorber to the lower control arm





The shock absorber installed into the car waiting for the top mounting hardware to be installed





The top nut of the shock absorber being tightened using a ratcheting gear wrench.







Here's a 1998 crownvic with the lower control arm removed



Here's where the spring would normally be located. The shock absorber top stud would normally pass through the circular hole in the center of the spring seat













Here's a new driver's side control arm for a 1998 crown victoria. The new control arm came with the holes for the shock absorber mounting bolts untapped



Here's a shock absorber to install



A closeup of the self tapping bolts which retain the shock absorber to the lower control arm



The control arm from the bottom with the shock absorber installed



The control arm from the top with the shock installed



A closeup of the bolts which would normally retain the control arm to the frame of the vehicle



Here is a passenger's side control arm from a ~2 year old 2002 crown victoria that had around 20k miles on it when it was wrecked. Ford stopped painting the lower control arms sometime in the 1998-1999 model years as a result a noticeable amount of surface rust is present.



On high mileage vehicles and on vehicles driven on really rough roads, watch for hairline fractures around the shock absorber mounting points in the lower control arm.

Some mechanics have been known to strip the threads out of the control arms by overtightening the shock absorber mounting bolts with air impact wrenches too.



Here's the driver's side of a 1998 crown victoria with the lower control arm removed



Here's where the top of the spring would normally be seated and where the shock absorber stud would pass through the frame



Here's the driver's side of the car with the with the shock absorber installed





And with the top shock absorber nut cut away



And the whole shock absorber removed from the car



Here's the new shock absorber installed waiting for the top nut and rubber insulator



Now lets move on to the passenger's side shock absorber in a 1998 police cruiser



The old shock absorber top nut cut off and the shock removed entirely. Be careful not to damage the a/c evaporator lower liquid line during shock absorber removal.



The new shock absorber installed







And the top nut being tightened down using a swivel head ratcheting gear wrench



Raising a jack under the lower control arm will wedge the shock absorber rubber bushing against the frame so that the stud doesn't spin around when the top shock nut is tightened.



There is a lot of space to access the top shock nut if the a/c evaporator lower liquid line is removed. But discharging the a/c system in your car to change your shock absorbers is not recommended.











A 1997 crown victoria, note that different curvature to the evaporator lower liquid line and also the different radiator degas bottle location





The 1979-1994 crown victorias had a different frame in the front shock absorber mount area than the 1995-2002 cars did. This was a carryover from the 79-91 model years when these cars had stamped steel upper control arms and the camber/caster settings were adjusted by moving the front control arm in relation to the frame during a frontend alignment.















1993 crown victoria with the upper control arms and shock absorbers removed. Take note of the elliptical cutouts in the frame where the upper control arms would mount.







The upper control arm cross-shafts that the 92-94 crownvics used





1995-2002 crown victorias with the later revision of the frame in the control arm mount area.