As for #1 below, did you put those little aluminum spacers in that were
shipped in the box with the shocks between the shock and the mounting point?
My brother just installed them on his QC 4x4 and put the spacers in. He
thought about it for a while and called Edelbrock to see what was up with
them being in the box and only a small piece of paper for a diagram. Nothing
saying they have to be instaleed. They said that they are just thrown in the
box "in case" you need them for clearance. We jacked his truck up and found
they did hit the upper control arm and were putting a gouge in the shock
body. Took them back out and all was well again. Centered the shock in the
control arm. I wouldn't leave them in. The front doesn't have to come up
very far for them the hit the control arm. I would think even a driveway at
an angle a moderate speed could get them to hit. We stuck a small pry-bar
under the bottom of the shock while removing the lower bolt so we wouldn't
have to try and get it back into position afterwards. Hold the shock where
it is and have someone else fish the spacer out. Stick the bolt back in and
tighten down to the correct torque spec.
Greg '01 CC 4x4 4.7 auto
"andy levy" <andy-dml@levyclan.us> wrote in message
news:bmakad$8ne$1@bent.twistedbits.net...
>
> And it only took me 4 hours, compared with the 6+ the RS5000s took on my
> '99. Of course, this time I at least had half a clue what I was doing.
>
> The rears were cake, no trouble at all. Rear end of the truck
> definitely sits a little higher now. Which also happed on the '99 when
> I put the Ranchos on it.
>
> The fronts were...ouch. The IAS appears to be longer than the OEM
> shock, and was impossible to compress by hand. Of course I discover
> this after I have the truck in the air and the old shock off. Called my
> friend who helped me on the '99 to see if he remembered how we did
> those. We concluded that the Ranchos compressed by hand. Time to get
> creative.
>
> He suggested using one of my racheting cargo tiedowns somehow. I looked
> around and finally cooked up a solution. I hooked one end of the
> tiedown to the front cab mount, and the other end to the bottom bolt eye
> on the shock after getting the shock roughly into position and putting
> the top not on enough to hold the shock in place. Strap went over the
> upper shock mount and then down alongside the shock. Cranked down on
> the tiedown ratchet until the shock was compresed, slid it into
> position, and drove the bolt home.
>
> So I have everything installed. The questions:
> 1 - With the front suspension fully relaxed (and wheel off), I noticed
> that the shock body was actually in contact with the upper A-arm. Back
> on the ground, I do have clearance. Anything to worry about? I don't
> expect to put my wheels airborne and come down on them while actually in
> motion - only via a jack or lift.
>
> 2 - The RS5000s hissed on extension/compression. These don't. Just a
> result of the different design?
>
> 3 - These shocks have poly bushings. Will I have to re-grease them
> regularly?
>
> I can't believe how easily the OEM shocks came out, compared with the
> '99's. And the front lower shock bolts went in a lot easier. But I
> have less than 1/3 the miles on these, and haven't been through a winter
> with the truck yet.
>
> The OEM shocks definitely aren't worn out, but I wasn't pleased with the
> ride quality (and more importantly, my fiancee wasn't pleased with the
> rear end bouncing all over). She better like these.
>
> --
> -andy
>
> http://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us
> --------------------------------------------
> "Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine"
> -Bob Tom
> --------------------------------------------
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:47:03 EST