Thanks Stewart. I'm good, but from the sounds of your message, you may be in the same boat I'm in and just not realize it. My old Bilstein shocks laying on the bench measure 15" fully extended without the rubber bushing.

 

I gotta change my oil this week. When I do, I'll jack up my front-end and let the wheels hang and re-measure.

Stewart

 

Update. Long post, lots of pics.

First off, thanks to our new friend Matt at Rancho Suspension who has been helpful in assisting me in finding something that the standard book doesn't help with.

Here's what started this.



Doesn't look too bad until you realize there's only a little over 1" of extension until the shock reaches the max limit. (center of bolt to center of hole)



Which is what started my whole search. The local 4 wheel parts store had some shocks they sell for my truck with a leveling kit and they are pathetic. Don't waste your money. Find some used shocks from a Honda or something first.

So with the help of my new friend Matt, I ordered a set of Rancho 9000 RS999237 for the front end. Just using the old eyeballs, these are much bigger shocks than the ones I got from 4 wheel parts or than my old Bilsteins that I'm using for comparison in these pictures.



The Rancho's are just plain bigger.

Bilstein



Rancho



Bilstein


Rancho





So far things are looking promising. Then I discover that the Rancho's I ordered won't fit on the bottom shock mount.

Blurry picture of mount


ID of Rancho Steel bushing



So I look for a 5/8" drill bit and realize I can't find it. Next step is to look at all the other old front shocks and recognize that there is no lower steel bushing on any of the other brands. So I press out the steel bushing and end up with this



Close enough for government work (I'm reserving the right to change my mind after a few miles). So I install the shocks with no steel bushings on the bottom.

So I finally get everything installed and I may be in for a new problem



I'm sitting with the wheels on level ground and I'm at about 14". My friend Matt gave me

Info from my specs: (Front)
Compressed 12
Extended 18.00
Travel 6

That means now I've got only 2 " of compression plus the thickness of the rubber bushing before the shock bottoms out. So now the big question is, will I bottom the shock out with only 2 and some odd inches of compression, or is that enough?

On a side note, one of the front shocks came missing the hardware. I did get a boot, but no bushings, washers or nut for the top. Luckily these are old fashioned American products so I was able to use a standard size drill bit to make the old washers and bushings fit and I had a nut that was the right size in my bolt bin. I don't keep much metric stuff around, but this was an easy fix for now.

I got new back Rancho shocks also, so the test drive tomorrow will either be very good or very disappointing. Anyone care to guess how things will go? Anyone have an opinion on weather to drill out the steel bushing sleeves and put them back in the lower front shock mount or just leave them out?

Any other comments or questions?

 

All the reaearch that you have done,time spent and not getting all the right hardware makes my head hurt....I am sure you are feeling pretty sour as well.
Installed new silver Bilsteins on mine today.We will see?

 

You are going to need a bushing in there. I will PM the number to you to order them. Let me/us know about your experience with them. Remember about the warranty as well. This was a fun little project trying to find a shock that would might work in his application.

 

So it's been 2 days and almost 300 miles so I figure it's time for another update to my story. First off, the ride is about 200% better than it has been. The bumps aren't near as harsh. Even the areas where the roads have sunk down below the bridge level and the little asphalt ramp they poured to bridge the gap creates a ramp that causes everything in my tool box and bed to fly up in the air ad then land in one loud clunk at 60 mph. You can tell by the sound the stuff doesn't bounce as high as it used to.

Now for the length. I really wish I had a little more travel distance between rest and fully collapsed, but I haven't bottomed the shock out yet that I can tell, despite me trying to. After doing the install and seeing how little travel there was, I had convinced myself that this shock was the wrong length, but I had asked for a collapsed length of around 12" based on my original 14.5" measurement.

Then I decided to compare the specs from factory to my new ones again.

Stock Compressed 10.34" Rancho Compressed 12

After a 2" leveling kit it sounds like I'm actually ahead a little.

Stock Extended 15.34 Ranch Extended 18.00

Picked up even more here so I'm still looking for the downside to this installation.

Matt says I do need the metal sleeve inside the lower bushing so I'll get that done this week. Not sure why it's needed when none of the other shocks I've used have them, but at this point I'm so tickled about having a smooth riding truck again I'll go ahead and do it just to keep him happy.

Overall I'm extremely pleased. I've got shocks made in the USA that have greatly improved my ride and Matt with Ranch has been most helpful assisting me find a shock to fit an application none of their books have listed.

I'll play with it and dig into it more this weekend and update again if I have any other thoughts or comments.

 

Please do. And let us know where you get a replacement bushing.

After you're completely satisfied, please make another post compiling all the part numbers for the stuff you used.

I still have to pull my lower bolt to see how far mine extends, but it sounds like I might be doing this mod too some time next year.

Stewart

 

Thanks again for the review and the opportunity to work with you. Alsofor your honest review. Sorry that the bushing package didn't get in there as well. We suggest using the sleeve as it allows for a longer life of the bushing. Play around with the settings as well.
Thanks again
Matt

 

double post

 

Well bad news. 2" of compression is not enough if you plan on hitting really bumpy roads and such at high speed. Passenger side shock didn't take a bump this week to well and gave out. I heard it hit and knew it wouldn't be good.

Deep down, I knew 2" of compression would not be enough for the kid of roads I drive on. I guess I'll go back with the stock length now and hope the extension will be enough that it doesn't blow a shock from over-travel in the other direction.

I still had one old bilstein laying around. (don't ask me why I kept one and not the other) I tried putting it back on and it wasn't quite long enough with the truck up on jacks, but I did notice about an inch of thread length above the nut. So for now, I've got one old wore out bilstein with 1" of stacked washers to give me just a little more extension so we can see how this goes.

One side is too short and the other side is too long now. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.

 

Arghg.

Thanks for updating the thread.

Stewart

 

Did you ever get this resolved or are you still driving around on stock shocks with bolts welded on and washers stacked?

 

That's how I resolved it. By driving around with bolts welded on and washers stacked as a spacer. Works good enough for me because it puts me within a range I find acceptable. I never could find a shock that would meet my needs that didn't require modification.

 

That sounds like a good solution, but my welder is having issues so I tried to find a different fix, which I think I did here:

Superior RideEFFEX™ 13-6521 - Shock Extend | O'Reilly Auto Parts

What do you think?

 

Here is a trick I learned with shock travel.

Put an O-ring on the piston and bottom it against the body. as the shock travels up and down the o-ring will mark the max distance traveled. Ideally the o-ring should be mid range of the piston.