I just put in a full set of Rancho RSX's, and have run into a slight problem. I liquid wrenched all the bolts in advance, and again on the same day, but they were still tough. I had to get ALOT of torque on some of them. One I guess I put to much on. I was trying to remove the nut on one of the lower front shocks (the longer one) and the "bolt" ripped off right where the threads begin. So I've got a nut with the threaded piece inside it, and half the mount. I think it was a 1\2'', so this surprised me, I guess it was rusted on just too much. So, the shocks are all installed, including the one in front. There's enough to fit it on and it's in by tension, with no nut, or room for one. I did some testing, gradually, and ended up hitting some good potholes, highways speeds, and one decently bumpy dirt\gravel road, and it's not moving. It shows no sign of movement, seems to be staying on and functioning properly without the nut. I had a local mechanic look at the mount, which is basically a threaded piece sticking out of a major bracket, to see if it could be drilled and tapped. He said no, not enough to tap, it was welded orginally (claimed I needed the whole bracket, I say no way, probably a $400-500 job). I asked a guy at work who's pretty knowledgable, and he recommended a local welder. Said he should be able to cut the old piece off, and weld a new bolt in there easily. I'd have to remove the shock again, but it would be pretty cheap. So what do you think? I'm driving to West Virginia in two days, roundtrip minimum 400 miles. It seems to be holding great right now, and I put it to the test, is it worth messing with or can it wait awhile, or indefinately? Anyone else broken this mount? I have very little time to play with before the trip.

 

Get a rental. Don't risk any other damage on a long trip. Where you going in WV? I live in WV and can tell you what type of potholes to expect on roads here?

 

I'm coming from the Annapolis area. I'm headed to my friend's cabin. I don't know the area well, he's got the direstions, just that it's in the southern part of the state. I think about an hour from Monterey. Getting a rental is not really an option for me, for one thing I'm under 21, which limits my options, and for another my Bronco has dual shocks on each side, so worst case I can ride with one on each side. It's just that I gave it a decent bashing today and seems %100 fine. Do you think the welded joint would hold? Right now I almost don't want to mess with it, as in "if it ain't broke don't fix it", except techincally it is broke. If that makes any sense. I'm told the cabin area is pretty hilly, but not super rough, just bumpy. You can get to the cabin in a regular car with care. Now there may be some places a little more fun AROUND the cabin. But now I'm just thinking careless. Anyone else want to weigh in? Thanks for the reply.

 

It looks like it mounts to the spring seat. I looked on ford parts network and it doesn't show the 4 shock setup. The regular spring seat lists for $46 from Ford. I would check the price for the right one at a dealer. It is held on with four bolts it looks like. It should be easy to replace although you would probably have to compress the spring. The original bolt is welded in place so you could have one welded in its place. drill out the old one and use a high grade bolt through the hole with a nice head on it so it can be welded in place. It would probably be stronger than the original.

 

I'm getting it welded tomorow. Actually, it's more of a stud than a bolt. It protrudes from a bracket that goes under the axle housing. At the bottom of the bracket, a big bolt goes up through all the way to the spring seat, probably over six inches long, maybe 3\4'' thick (I bet it gets torqued over 200 lbs.). That would have to be removed to replace the bracket, and that's out of my league and probably pretty pricey. Anyway, I got a grade 8 bolt and hardware, and a local shop is going to do it for $45 tomorow while I'm at work. I've dealt with them before and they do good work. So I'm in good shape now. Yeah, it will probably be stronger even. Thanks for looking into it.

 

I had the exact same thing happen when I lifted my 92. Lower shock mount on the auxilliary front shock, driver's side snapped in the same place. The reality of the situation was that I had the rest of the front end apart because of adding extended radius arms so, the bracket was simple enough to remove since it wraps around the axle half just like the radius arms do. However, if you don't have the front end that far apart and aren't planning to take it that far apart, you may want to consider other options. I simply ran to the Ford Truck Center here and they had the silly thing on the shelf. (gotta love Broadway Ford...St. Louis area people will know what I mean). The bracket only cost about $8.00 but the time expended to get it off the truck was a few hours. Requires removal of the front spring, spring cup, stud, lower radius arm-to-axle bolt and a host of other things just to have room to access the bracket and even then its been compressed between the radius arm forks and the axle half for years so its not very willing to budge. Sorry to confirm the fear that replacement will be a PITA but, alas, its true.

 

If you buy decent aftermarket direct-replacement shocks (like CarQuest Bruisers), they come with a replacement stud that would solve your problem. I have probably 6-8 of them from all the shocks I've put on my Bronco, my brother-in-law's, and others. They look just like that stud, but have a threaded stud on the back and include a nut & lockwasher.

 

This exact thing happened to me while I was trying to replace the front shock. I put some liquid wrench on the nut the day before but I should've known better! I was pushing on this thing so hard it torqued my whole body off the ground. Then it came loose! Meaning it sheared all the threads right off, with the nut still on the bolt. Anyway, my buddy and I thought about taking the axle assembly apart to get at the offending piece to replace it, but after futzing with some other bolts, we were scared of doing the same thing. The bronco is our main family car so having it out of action for a few days was out of the question. Anway, we ended up using a sawzall and a hacksaw blade (3 of em...) and we cut the stud clean off. I polished it down with a dremel. We then used a cordless hammer drill and successively larger bits to bore a 5/8" hole. Luckily for me the NAPA shocks I bought came with a bolt with a flatted head. The flange on the mount keeps the bolt from rotating. Popped it through the hole we drilled and we were good to go! Total time to fix it, about an hour and a half (took a while with that sawzall).
It felt crazy to sawzall a piece off the Bronco, but I'm glad I've got a bolt instead of a stud. What engineer thought that was a good idea anyway?

owen