BGKYK5 had a great writeup with more detail in the blog section, but none of the pics were showing up. I'm pasting it here in all its glory:
A bunch of people are running Ford Stupid Duty shock mounts up front. They work great, but there have been reports of them pulling bolts through the frame and it can be tough to clear the steering shaft.
So I decided to use Stupid Duty shock mounts... with a little BGKYK5 tweak.
Step 1. Acquire a couple Stupid Duty shock mounts. You can get them at a junk yard, from a CK5er or from your friendly neighborhood Ford parts counter (PN E5TZ-18183-A)
Step 2. Acquire some steel. I got a foot of 2"X6"x3/16" rectangular tube. You'll need 6" for each side. If you can get 2"x6" angle, get that.
You should now have two sets of these:
Step 3. Cut the 2"x6" tube to make a 2"x6" L shape like this. Save yourself a little work, and keep the side without the seam.
Step 4. Remove the brake line bracket, trim it, flip it over, and weld it to the bump stop bracket.
Before:
After:
Yes, it is an ugly weld, but it is stronger than the brake line.
Step 5. Remove these bolts:
Step 6. Notch your 2"x6" piece of steel to clear the brake line. I notched it so it could slide all the way up to the forward motor mount braket bolt on top of the frame (you just removed the rear one) without hitting the brake line. I drilled a 1/2" hole in the corner of the notch before cutting to provide a nice radius there.
Step 7. Drill out these holes to clear a 1/2" bolt. You will use the slotted hole in the frame as well, but it is already large enough. Drill matching holes in your 2"x6" L as well as a hole for the top motor mount bracket bolt (which is 7/16).
Step 8. Grab your Stupid Duty shock mount, measure half a dozen times, trim a little and test fit again. Repeat many times until you have this:
Step 9. Tack weld them together and test fit again. When you are happy with it, weld it solid and knock off any sharp corners/edges. Mine are leaned back at about a 10 degree angle. I left a little gap in the weld to clear the bolt washer on one side and had to grind the weld a little on the other side. I had to drill out the shock bolt hole in the Stupid Duty mount to fit the shock bolt too.
Step 10. Now take your scrap pieces from the 2"x6" rectangular tube and cut a backing plate for two of the bolts (the other two go through the motor mount bracket).
Step 11. To keep the shock eye bolts parallel, I cut off the lower shock mounts and welded on some of my favorite
Ruff Stuff mounts. Mount these as far outboard as you can get them. Mine are right up against the inner "C" and welded to both the inner "C" and axle tube. I never understood why people mount thier shocks to the top of the axle. This way is just as protected, helps prevent axle wrap (a little), and it keeps your shock tower about half as tall for half the leverage on the frame.
Step 12. Install your brackets and shocks.
You will have to trim the inner fender on the passenger side.
I am using 15" travel Rancho 9000s up front with about 4" of lift and about 4 1/2" of up travel.
The tricky part of the whole process is keeping the shocks and mounts out of the steering shaft and spring plates. This method allows you to set the back of the Stupid Duty mount inboard of the face of the frame. I set the driver's side about 1/4" further inboard than the passenger's side to clear the steering shaft. The extra clearance on the passenger's side helps clear the larger spring plate on that side. The shock body gets pretty close to the spring plate on the driver's side. I may have to trim it. You also end up pretty close the evaporator housing on the passenger side if you have AC, but it is easier to miss than the steering shaft on the driver's side.
You will also have to slightly tweak the brake line and fuel tank vent line running down the passenger's side frame rail to clear the two bolts that go through the backing plate.
Two of the bolts on each side tie into the motor mount brackets and the other two have a generous backing plate. There are also bolts in two different planes and angles for stiffness in two different planes. I am much more confident with this setup than I would be just putting two bolts through the Stupid Duty mounts and the frame. I thought about adding a second bolt on top of the frame rail, but didn't want to drill another hole in the frame. There is a hole that could work on the passenger side, but that would require recontouring the bracket to match the bend in the frame. I decided that was too much work for too little gain.
I will post a pic of my inner fenders tomorrow, I will be at the shop tomorrow after work. The amount I had to remove really was not that much.
