HEllo all,
I have 2 Broncos, a 90 and a 93, both with lift kits. My 90 has a stage 2 skyjacker 6in susp lift and the 93 has a procomp 4 in suspension lift.

Is anyone else here having problems with thier coil spring banging into thier shocks and denting them?

Even mild off roading makes the coil spring on both of my Bronco's slide to the rear of the perch and bangs up my shocks - especially on the passenger side.

Is there an application or even some sort of spacer that keeps the spring from drifting on its perch?

I'm about ready to spend some money on good reservoir shocks and don't want them beat up, thanks.

 

Are you running the stock TTB axle? Ive heard alot of people having this problem with solid axles, but not so much with TTB.

 

I am running stock TTB axle not solid.

 

I have the exact same problem with my 4 in Dick Cepek lift. It has rendered the shocks pretty much useless and I want to buy some Bilsteins but don't want them to get trashed. One suggestion I was given was to move the lower shock mount back? I'm wondering if my removing the front sway bar is allowing more lateral movement resulting in the crushed shock? Any insightwould be greatly appreciated by both of us I'm sure!

 

When I first had my Skyjacker 6" lift installed, the extended radius arms were on backorder so the kit was installed with the stock arms and drop brackets. On both sides, the coil springs hit the rear shock. Once I received the new arms, no more problems. Speaking with my front end alignment guru who is an ASE certified alignment specialist, he said it was impossible to get the CASTER adjusted true with the stock radius arms and drops. Caster, not camber, is a vertical line drawn thru the axle or wheel when viewed from the side. If the line above the axle is leaning toward the front of the rig, the bottom of the coil spring will hit the rear shock or the top of the spring will hit the front shock in the quad setup.

I suspect if you are having the same problem with coil spring-shock contact or the springs are not straight up-and-down, you have a caster problem. When lifting the front axle, it wants to roll back and up toward the center of the truck, since it's attached by the radius arms. There is no real caster adjustment, so proper measurement and installation of the brackets for the extended radius arms is critical. You MAY be able to use a shim in front of the bushing at the radius arm mount for a minor adjustment on one side. I used polyurethane bushings throughout my suspension to eliminate any slop. If an axle pivot bushing or radius arm bushing is worn, that can affect your alignment.JSM84

 

Hmm, maybe I'll order some extended arms then before replacing the shocks. What do you think about the sway bar effecting it? I would think that it would have some control over the axles tendency to want to rotate back and up, right? So maybe reattaching it would help?

 

www.RockAuto.com sells Moog "Alignment Caster and Alignment Camber Kits". There are a half dozen or so kits with different radius arm bushings or camber bushings to adjust the caster or camber by varying number of degrees. Moog says these bushings kits are "Problem Solvers" but they do not specifically mention dented shocks.

Find Moog as well as ACDelco and Beck/Arnley bushings under "Suspension" in the www.RockAuto.com catalog. Pictures of some of the bushing kits are available by clicking the "More Info" button next to the part number.

 

The problem is that the caster adjusting bushings are designed for a straight axle Dana44, not the TTB D44.

As for the anti-sway bars, I removed the front and rear immediately when the lift was first installed. They only slightly reduce body roll and limit suspension travel, not normal driving alignment. IF you were to re-install them on a lifted suspension without drop brackets to return the bars to level or stock condition, they would be in such a bind that they would severely limit travel. The only use for the bars is for towing, IMO, which I don't recommend with a lifted Bronco. IF you want to keep the bars, you need drop brackets where they mount to the frame.

 

Just fyi - I do have the Skyjacker extended radius arms, and they were installed correctly by professionals. There may be something simple I am overlooking in the assembly where the shock sits on its perch.

According to my Haynes manual, there is a lower spring seat (perch), insulator and retainer. The insulator and retainers on both my Bronco's look too small - I can put my finger all the way around it's radius, that's how much space there is for the spring to drift any direction.

I can't imagine this is correct. There must be larger retainers (in diameter) that I can put in place of what I have to keep the spring from sliding in any direction.

 

Thats not a bad thought - I never compared the diameters of the bottom of the springs when going from stock to lifted - maybe the hole was bigger making it wander on the mount. I will check this weekend.

 

Here's some links to some photos of it:

http://www.skywheelie.com/shocks/1.jpg

http://www.skywheelie.com/shocks/6.jpg

http://www.skywheelie.com/shocks/7.jpg

http://www.skywheelie.com/shocks/gap.jpg

Hope this helps some, thanks.