Well I found that clunk.. Shock ?s

[rx7gslse]

Well for awhile my suburban has been making a nice clunk as I go over speedbumps or anything kinda harsh... Well poking aroudn today, I found out why.. The upper bushings on the front shocks are gone. *Appears* as if a peice was left out on installation..

Pictures!
how it looks now..

See how teh rubber bushing is basically split and shoved to the sides?

If I wiggle the bushing back in and it looks like;

Bare bolt! that's no good....

So yeah... As long as we're doing this, what shocks are reccomended? Suburban with the 4" Pro-Comp (aka stiff as cr@p) lift. This truck sees REALLY bad roads in Mexico on a daily basis, and a trip up and down the beach every month or so.. No real serious rock crawlin or flexin.

Right now these arejust the base pro-comp shocks and between these and the springs, and the crappy mexico the ride is just harsh.. What shocks woule help out with that? Thanks!

Oh, and any specific place to get that silly spacer for installing the new shocks?

 

[imiceman44]

Well for awhile my suburban has been making a nice clunk as I go over speedbumps or anything kinda harsh... Well poking aroudn today, I found out why.. The upper bushings on the front shocks are gone. *Appears* as if a peice was left out on installation..

Pictures!
how it looks now..

See how teh rubber bushing is basically split and shoved to the sides?

If I wiggle the bushing back in and it looks like;

Bare bolt! that's no good....

So yeah... As long as we're doing this, what shocks are reccomended? Suburban with the 4" Pro-Comp (aka stiff as cr@p) lift. This truck sees REALLY bad roads in Mexico on a daily basis, and a trip up and down the beach every month or so.. No real serious rock crawlin or flexin.

Right now these arejust the base pro-comp shocks and between these and the springs, and the crappy mexico the ride is just harsh.. What shocks woule help out with that? Thanks!

Oh, and any specific place to get that silly spacer for installing the new shocks?

The shocks should come with a sleeve that is the right length, no spacers here.
As for shocks, I would go with either a cheap replacement that is good for the money (monroe) or go a little better with Rancho 9000 (skip the 5000) Or go with bilsteins if money is no object.

 

[rx7gslse]

The shocks should come with a sleeve that is the right length, no spacers here.
As for shocks, I would go with either a cheap replacement that is good for the money (monroe) or go a little better with Rancho 9000 (skip the 5000) Or go with bilsteins if money is no object.

the RS9000 - is that the adjustable one? I see 4wheel parts has the 9000X for like $90/ea.. (difference between 9000 and 9000x??)

I like the adjustable idea.. I've gotten spoiled by the adjustable setup on my Rx7... Just a question of.. is it worth it?

 

[tRustyK5]

Bilstein 5150's...with remote resevoir, monotube are maybe $9 more than Rancho junk. If you're gonna spend a hundred bucks a corner go with some good monotubes.

Rene

 

[imiceman44]

the RS9000 - is that the adjustable one? I see 4wheel parts has the 9000X for like $90/ea.. (difference between 9000 and 9000x??)

I like the adjustable idea.. I've gotten spoiled by the adjustable setup on my Rx7... Just a question of.. is it worth it?

Yeah they are adjustable, I know if you shop around you can get them cheaper than that.
Like Rene said if you wanna pay that much a little more and you get a monotube, but if you like the adjustability, you will like the Rancho.
I like it, I actually change the settings to what I am doing, and I do feel the difference.

 

[rx7gslse]

oh, I'm totally up for spending less.. IF there's a valid option...

And just to clarify, at the moment I'm really just looking at replacing the fronts.. Is that bad?

 

[rx7gslse]

alright... after an afternoon of reading, lookjs like I wanna get either the 5125s or 5150s... Good compromise of quality nd smooth ride.

Now, question is.. what length.

At rest with my 4" lift kit, the fronts at at 20" eye to eye, the rears are at 24"

For the fronts, I see the bilsteins with 10" travel, 25.91 extended and 15.89 compressed look pretty much centered for the 20" nominal.. Is that the right setup??

Comparing to 4wparts 'suggestions' those appear too long.. They suggestion for a 4" lift is only 13" compressed, 21" extended.. Are they measuring different? Am I missing something??

I see lots of posts on what brand of shock to run and comparisions.. Just not much on what *size* to run. At least not in teh stock location, I'm not ready to fab up a new mount, and not planning to mess with the F250 mounts or anything fancy at the moment, unless someone *really* convinces me it's required...

 

[imiceman44]

alright... after an afternoon of reading, lookjs like I wanna get either the 5125s or 5150s... Good compromise of quality nd smooth ride.

Now, question is.. what length.

At rest with my 4" lift kit, the fronts at at 20" eye to eye, the rears are at 24"

For the fronts, I see the bilsteins with 10" travel, 25.91 extended and 15.89 compressed look pretty much centered for the 20" nominal.. Is that the right setup??

Comparing to 4wparts 'suggestions' those appear too long.. They suggestion for a 4" lift is only 13" compressed, 21" extended.. Are they measuring different? Am I missing something??

I see lots of posts on what brand of shock to run and comparisions.. Just not much on what *size* to run. At least not in teh stock location, I'm not ready to fab up a new mount, and not planning to mess with the F250 mounts or anything fancy at the moment, unless someone *really* convinces me it's required...

With shocks it's hard to really do a guess but if you had to I would pick your choice not 4wp's since they only give 1" for droop, not enough.
The only poblem with the longer ones if you jump them or hit a big bump, they might bottom out and that could kill a shock, while pulling it will last longer, still will damage it but not as bad as bottoming it out, that is why they go with shorter.
Is thee anything in between?
You wanna try and give 2/3 up 1/3 down IIRC

The way I do it is I flex it with no shocks and se where it needs more and then add a couple more inches for a bump

 

[Desert Yeti]

I see lots of posts on what brand of shock to run and comparisions.. Just not much on what *size* to run. At least not in teh stock location, I'm not ready to fab up a new mount, and not planning to mess with the F250 mounts or anything fancy at the moment, unless someone *really* convinces me it's required...

What are you going to do with the truck? If you're a rock crawler and want the best articulation you can get, it's WELL worth the time to fab up some shock mounts that move the upper mount upward. (see the product review section on the main site for one way to do this). The problem is that with nice flexy springs, to avoid bottoming out the shock mounted in the stock location, you need a compressed length that's not much longer than stock. or you need bigger bump stops. Either one of these limits your travel when one side is stuffed and other side hangs (articulation). The simple mod of moving the upper mount up about 4 or 5 inches gives you room for a longer shock at full compression...therefore also longer travel to full droop.

I'm a total noob with not much in the way of fab skills, but the $26 investment in the F250 towers, a drill, and a couple bolts gave me a bunch more flex! The biggest PITA is getting the rivets out of the stock mounts without nifty tools like an air chisel!

Shocks: Other guys on here have already mentioned it, but there's an outfit selling "scratch and dent" Superlift shocks on eBay for dirt cheap. Not very good shocks (if $ permits, go Bilstein!) but one thing that $10 shocks ARE good for is testing! If you think you can get away with a longer shock for more travel but are afraid you might bottom out your fancy new $100 ones, just buy a set of these $10 Superlift ones in the size you need and go hit some trails! Put a zip tie around the shaft to measure how much it gets compressed.

Wow that turned into a diatribe... anyway, my $.02 worth

 

[rx7gslse]

alright.. thanks for the replies. I will have to do a little work to flex it without shocks and get real *accurate* numbers, but a flexy rockclimbing spring rate the pro-comp springs do not make!

The 5150s have a step down too.. 13.5" compressed length, and 22.5" extended. Allowing 5" compression, 2.5" droop.

OR I could do the F250 mounts, and I guess (from pictures, others coudl probably say more accurately) gain about 5" of shock length on the upper end. So the 5150s with 29.7" extended/17.9" compressed would be the closest fit (in the 255/70 valving) Would allow for approx 4.7" droop but still only 7.1" compression. (if you gain <5" from the mounts, the #s would be worse..)

Ok, so yeah.. 7.1" > 5" no doubt. I guess I shoudl ask.. Where's the best place to buy F250 mounts? Ford have a counter part to gmpartsdirect.com or just go try my luck at a dealer? edit - found fordpartsdirect.com

I see p/n for both the stamped 80s F-250 and cast Superduty setups.. what's preferred?
80s stamped style E5TZ-18183-A $9.76/ea at above site
new SD style F81Z-18183-AA $20.75/ea above site

 

[Desert Yeti]

I went with the stamped pieces... both for cost (I'm cheap! ) and because the later model SD ones force the shock bushing to mount up at a slightly twisted angle. Works fine for everyone who has done it, but combined with the greater expense, the stamped pieces seemed the way to go. There are pics on here somewhere of both types.

I set up mine almost exactly the way they did in the product review on the main page and I'm running shocks that are 17.69/29.54 or some such and it works great so far... nearly a foot of travel is a good thing.

Good job on the fordpartsdirect thing... I'm a dumbass and just went down the local Ford dealer. The counter guy quoted me something like $30 per side for the stamped pieces!! I told him I'd seen them online (on here anyway!) for about $13. He punched some buttons and said, "oh yeah, $13.52 each" What was up with the first price? Anyway, $9 each (even with some shipping) is a good deal.