Re: rear right shock upper bolt

From: jon@dakota-truck.net
Date: Sun Jun 27 2010 - 17:24:38 EDT


jherrman@zoominternet.net wrote:

> I'm trying to remove the rear right shock on my 2003 Oak, and am
> wondering if anybody has had the same problem I'm having: on the upper
> bolt there's a clip on the frame to hold the outer nut in place while
> the inner nut is loosened. It's a pain to get at the inner nut, with
> the exhaust and heat shield in the way, but as I'm making progress on
> it, wham!, the fame-clip bends just a bit and under pressure and
> allows the outer nut to slide around it. So how can I hold the outer
> bolt in place? I'm thinking if I can find a box wrench to fit around
> the outer bolt (I don't have one; it looks like 18mm will work) I can
> wedge the wrench against the frame support holding up the bed, and
> then continue loosening the inner nut. Anybody else experience this or
> have other ideas to secure the outer bolt?

    I ran into the same problem when replacing the shocks on Jason &
Norah's quad cab. Its been a while and my memory isn't great, but if
I am remembering correctly, the head of the bolt is accessed from
outside, and inside the rail is the nut, which has a sort of "ear" on
it. When you spin the bolt, the inner nut will turn only so far until
that ear makes contact with the frame, stopping the nut from turning
further as you continue to back out the bolt.

    The problem is that Dodge made the ears on the nuts too thin, and
all it takes is a little corrosion to make them weak. They will then
bend and slip on the frame instead of holding firm.

    I belive what I did was to jam a section of pipe or rebar against
the ear, so that the ear's contact was being made closer to its base
instead of right at the very end. It was strong enough there for the
ear to not bend, this allowed me to remove the bolt. Before
re-installing the nuts, I cleaned them up and reinforced the ears by
welding some 1/8" thick steel to them. If you have a welder and some
scrap metal, this is easy to do, but if not, I would recommend picking
up a couple of extra nuts because the strength of those ears is only
going to get worse. If you get new nuts, spray a few coats of paint
on them before installing, preferably something that is designed to
combat rust. Either that, or coat them really well with a thick layer
of grease (not on the threads though).

    The upper and lower bolts should be torqued to 70 ft-lbs.

    I hope that helps!

-- 
                                          -Jon-

.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -. | '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars | `-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'



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