Front Upper Shock Mount?

[NorCalAnthony]

I have a set of 4" TC EZ Rides waiting to go on my 84 Blazer and I'm trying to figure out which shocks to order. I'm looking to get some Bilsteins from ORD but they have them split up between stock upper shock mounts or with Ford towers/extended mounts. I was going to try hitting up @1977k5 for some input but wanted to see what some of you guys have done for similar setups.

My truck is a diesel and has the quad shocks up front and the forward/higher up shock mount already sits an inch or so above the frame and about three inches or so above where the the normal non-quad shock mount would be. Here's a quad setup for reference courtesy of Google:


Do you think that'd be enough to run their longer ORD-F3 shocks or would I still need to use their Ford towers? I've been trying to figure this out by looking at similar setups online but most of the pictures are dead thanks to Photo Bucket and the ones that aren't dead show the Ford towers being cut down with their shock mount being about as high up as my quad shock mounts are.

I really like the way @K85 Octane did his and will probably do something similar if I need to:

 

[mechted]

If you call ORD and ask them, they will probably be able to tell you over the phone. Take some measurements of what you have right now, including how much lift you have right now vs what you are going to.
The best method would be to just install the new springs, then measure for the new shocks.

 

[rampage]

I know someone who’d know ... @Stephen at ORD

 

[NorCalAnthony]

I know someone who’d know ... @Stephen at ORD

Thanks, I blanked and thought Chris/1977K5 was the only ORD guy on here.

If you call ORD and ask them, they will probably be able to tell you over the phone. Take some measurements of what you have right now, including how much lift you have right now vs what you are going to.
The best method would be to just install the new springs, then measure for the new shocks.

I tried getting measurements last night, that's where the 1" above the frame and 3" above the regular shock mount came from lol. I do plan on getting a hold of ORD later but I know it's going to be a long call and with the sketchy reception I have at work I thought I'd throw the question up here for now and see what other people with similar setups have done.

The truck is currently stock (84 K5, 6.2/700R4/NP208) and I plan on using the 4" EZ Rides and probably some zero rates to shift the axle forward a bit to avoid trimming the fenders up front. The rear will be getting a 4" shackle flip and some more zero rates the center the wheel. I'll also be swapping in a Ford Dana 60 (w/driver drop NP241) and AAM 10.5 14 bolt at the same time and I'll most likely be doing the work at my brother-in-laws shop over the weekend so I'm trying to have as much ready as possible so we can do as much of this on their off days as we can and not have to worry about tying up one of the lifts during the work week.

 

[Richcz28]

What size tires are you looking to run?

 

[NorCalAnthony]

What size tires are you looking to run?

For now I'll be using a set of H2 takeoffs, 315/70R17 or just shy of 35's.

 

[Richcz28]

I learned recently that usable uptravel directly correlates to tire size. You can use all of it with 35s.

 

[Blazooki]

Your gonna have to cut the bottom off of the Ford towers. They are gonna be to long. use at least 3 bolts when you mount them so they wont loosen up. What works good is to weld a piece of angle to the back of the tower so it sits on the top of the frame. Then drill thru and bolt. That ties the tower into the C channel nicely with 2 bolts thru the face. you can also weld them after they get bolted on. Its not like your ever gonna need to take them off.

heres a random pic off the internet. You can see how they shortened the tower

 

[Mastiff]

You need to measure, learn or estimate the travel you'll get from the springs. For my ORD springs it was all about droop. Then you can start figuring out how much shock length you need and what initial eye separation will work. Up travel can easily be controlled with bump stops, but down travel is tougher. There are limit straps but I don't see them in use much by casual people and it would take some thought to install them right. I doubt your new springs will have crazy travel anyway.

If you do go with new towers, I second what was said about reinforcement and getting an attachment to the top of the frame C. If you have the quad setup, you could do something like I did where I reused it, but raised it up higher:

https://ck5.com/forums/threads/ford-towers.313713/page-3#post-3401147

I like it better than the Ford thing because the angles are right if you use the same lower mount. It "seemed" super durable, but after some hard use the whole thing bent outboard a little and I had to remove it, bend it back and add that extra bolt on top.