Hey, I'm in the market for front and rear shocks. A lot of folks in this forum use Bilsteins for the rear but I've only heard from one person who replaced the fronts...and he used Monroes. Oh BTW, I have a '99 EB Expy w/4 corner LLS. Does anyone know of any good front LLS shocks? Thanks

Rob

 

When I replaced mine on the 99 E/B 4X4 Expedition we had, I used the Monroe reflex shocks in all four corners. A vast improvement over the original FORD ones. The only pain was the left rear top bolt as it is right next to the fuel tank and the working room is slim. The other four corners were very straight forward. Monroe even gave me a $40.00 check to use at my favorite auto parts store after I bought the four.

Randy B

http://www.monroe.com/products/mp_de...ck%20Absorbers

 

I got a set of 4 bilsteins for 249 from shocks.com and I couldn't be happier. Fairly easy install except I had to trim the top bushing down for the front top mount to get enough thread to get a nut on once you get in there you will see. To work around the gas tank I just used a couple of extensions and you can go right over the top its still a pain but not to bad. we only have 80,000 miles on ours and one of the rears was so shot it would expand back at all after the wife compressed it to compair the old ones to the new ones (needless to say I was the one compressing the new ones) I would definitely say bilsteins and I am going to do the same thing for the truck as soon as payday comes around.

 

I have rancho's and like them.

 

hookd, what kind of bilsteins did you buy? When I went to shox.com, they only had the rear shocks for the air leveling system. From what I've found, bilsteins didn't have any front shocks...unless these will work in the front too.

Randy B, did you use the same shock in all four corners or did you have to use 2 different kinds of Monroes?

wojowojo16, what kind of Rancho's did you use? And does your truck have the 4-corner air leveling system?

Thanks, Rob

 

don't remember, whatever advanced auto has...it does not have the air leveling system.

 

Rob,
I used the same on all four corners. I had the air delete on my 99 suspension. No load leveling.

Randy B

 

I just replace mine this past week-end. For the front with LLS you have only one choice and that is the Monroe's. I have herd they make the shocks for ford. I can say they are identical. Shock warehouse $75.00 each. The only problem I had is compressing the shock to remove it and install the new one. I am not as strong as some on this site. A pair of vise grips on the bottom rod and a pry bar and they came right out. Man what a difference it made in the ride quality of our Eddy. On the rear I used Billsteins, well worth it. I also found I had to remove the bracket for the load leveler switch on the drivers side upper a arm to be able to get enough clearance.

 

Ditto what Omaha said. Got the same shocks from the same place. Did the rears, will to the front next weekend.

Some tips I can pass along for the rear shocks:

Don't forget to turn of the LLS - you don't need the front end trying to keep up with you...

I jacked up both sides because I was also redoing the brakes so I had both rear wheels off and jackstands under the frame. and since I'm paranoid, I had jack stands under the rear axle as well. I jacked up one side and put a stand under the axle and a stand under the frame and adjusted them so both made contact but minimally compressed the suspension.

By doing this, I was able to see the driver's side top bold from the passengers side - there is a crack between the body and top of the frame. Since I could not get leverage or a wrench on the driver's side bold from the driver's side, I put together about 4' worth of 1/2 extensions and put them in from the passenger's side. A few cranks on a ratchet and the bolt was out. This method worked so well that I used it on the other top bolt as well.

Taking the wheels off opened up a lot of space to work and allowed the rear suspension to hang down. Make sure you have good jackstands.

With the rear axle hanging down, it GREATLY reduces the amount of manual compression you have to do on the shock to get it it. I think it was only a quarter of an inch or so too long at full extension - a lot easier than trying to compress it 6 inches.

With the wheels off, you can easily crawl under from the side and get all 4 bolts started back by hand. Note the above comment about good jack stands .

The top of the rear shock the upper rubber mounts were very snug in the mount on my Expy. To ease them in, use KY jelly or some other water-based lube. DO NOT use vaseline or any petrolium product - it can degrade the rubber on the mount.

The biggest problem I had was that one of the upper nuts fell out when I removed the old shock. This is not a big deal - they clip to the mount but on the one that came out the clip was sprung open and it would not hold itself on for beans. So I had to try to align the nut over the hole AND wedge the shock into the mount. It took a couple of tries but was not too bad.

The upper bolts can be a pain to line up if your mounts are snug - keep wiggling them around and pushing on the bolt. Then end of the bolt is not threaded and you can see the tip end emerge from the nut when you get it slid all the way in - then start wrenching it down.

I tightened the passenger's top and both bottom bolts from below. For the driver's top bolt, I used my 4 foot extension again.

If you do it this way, take a moment to inspect the rear brake pads and adjust your emergency brake.

Hope this helps.

 

I just ordered all four Bilsteins from TruckPerformance.com
If you have any questions, call up and talk with them, they are great. My original shocks have 100k on them are are so gooone - when I go over a speed bump it feels like im in small boat tossed around by giant ocean waves. Should arrive in a week, so update everyone once I put them on, cant wait!

 

Cool, thanks for all the replies. With all my searching online, I'm in the military stationed overseas, I too could only find Monroes for the fronts. Well, Monroes will go in the front and Bilsteins in the back.
And with close to 200K on my Expy, I need to treat her right.
Thanks again.

 

Cant imagine what Ford would want to do a shock replacement on my 99EB. I might have to call them in the AM just to solve my curiosity.

 

I put the Edelbrock IAS shocks in mine almost 6 years ago and even with some off roading, they have held up rather well. I'm surprised because a side by side comparison with the stock Ford pogo sticks showed that they weren't as substantial looking as the Ford's. The shock bodies and rods were smaller in diameter so the shocks looked more like car shocks than truck shocks. I was regretting my choice but they turned out performing well and lasting much longer than OEM.
Stephen

 

The first time I replaced my shocks I was at the dealership and just asked them to put some stock ones on. Around I did not notice much of a difference from the old ones but, 30,000mi later they were already worn out. I stopped by Sears and put Monroe in all 4 corners and the ride was excellent. I have 40,000 on the Monroes and the ride is still very good. I would recommend Monroe.

 

I had the Bilsteins installed on my 99 XLT 4X4 and I never noticed any difference from the factory shocks. My advice, save your money, buy a decent shock (something that you can get locally and for no shipping) and put the extra cash into another mod or your pocket.

I think that people on this board tend to buy/refer products because they see them written about so much on here, kind of like a peer pressure/hive mind kind of thing, innocently enough that is. My advice, do your research with a mechanic, they see these items on more than just Fords.