I just did both sets about 2 months ago. The front ones were torture as
getting the top nuts were really hard to get off. The rear ones were an
absolute joke. It took longer to jack up the van than to swap out the rear
shocks.  Your mileage may vary if you have allot of rust.

$499 for front brakes probably includes new rotors. That's one of those
parts from the other thread about bringing your own parts where you may be
able to get them for half of what the shop is getting them for. ;)

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jamie Fitterer
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 10:19 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Replacing Rear Shocks on 84 Westy.

So I need new shocks in the rear and I am wondering how hard it is to
replace those as I do not want to pay someone 200 bucks to do it.

Second,  the shop has told me that me front brakes and rotors are bad and
they have to replace them.  What I am confused about is that they said they
have to repack the front bearings to replace the brakes?  Is this a reality?
I mean i guess those could be bad?

I am just trying to save some money as the front brake job was quoted at
499.  That seems really frickin high to me.

Last, if you guys could suggest the brand and model of rear shock to be
putting in there that would be awesome.

Thanks again!