My shocks are too short! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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My shocks are too short!

drmoore71

Elite Explorer
Joined
March 30, 2000
Messages
958
Reaction score
1
City, State
houston, texas
Year, Model & Trim Level
2006 Z-71 suburban
Okay, bear with me here, this is going to be a long one. About 60,000 miles ago, I bought a set of Rancho 9000x's for my 2000 4x4 XLT with about 2" TT and Warrior shackles and AAL in rear. The rear shocks are fine, but the fronts, I noticed, were too short. They limit full droop by somewhere between 1" and 2". I didn't realize this until they had been on the truck for about 55,000 miles. I just figured that the banging noise in the front when I encountered a big dip in the road was the stiffer shocks causing the front suspension to extend really fast. What it actually was was the valve in the shock smashing into the top of the shock body. When I saw what was happening, I went to AutoZone and bought a pair of what were listed as 2" extensions for the top stud of the shock. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Now the shocks, while admittedly riding much softer, were now bottoming out on even the slightest of bumps. UGH! So I decided that the topping out was slightly more acceptable, so I decided to take off the extensions. Now comes the fun part. The extensions had completely galled the threads on the shock stud, rendering the shocks useless. Now I had to get a new pair of front shocks. I went to the local 4WheelParts and asked for a pair of Rancho 5000's that were about two inches longer. No problem was the response and I walked out the door with a pair of shocks for a Cherokee. Problem solved, right? Wrong. I went home to put the new RS5000's on the truck, and found that they were completely different than the Ford specific ones and would not clear the CV boots. I put them back in the box and back to 4WheelParts I went. After a lot of wrangling and thinking between me and two techs there, we decided to put the Pro Comp MX-6 on the truck, since they are an inverted shock, they should clear the CV Boots. So off I go, back to the house with my shiny new MX-6's and again, problem solved, right? Wrong. The bottom mounting point an oversized design and still runs into the CV Boot. Back to 4WheelParts, and...well you get the picture. I ended up buying a 4x4 Explorer specific pair of RS5000's which are, of course, too short, but I have an idea. What if I were to cut the mounting stud off the top of the shock body (it is only spot welded on two sides of what looks like a standard 3" length hex bolt), and welded a longer hex bolt back on to the shock body? Does this sound like a feasible solution? Any suggestions or feedback would be appreciated. One thing I am concerned about is overheating the body during the welding process and causing an explosion, since I am operating under the belief that the RS5000 is gas charged. Please let me know what you think. So sorry for the long read.

doug
 



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I wouldn't recommend welding on the shock body itself. Some hydraulic shocks even come with a warning stamped on NOT to weld directly on the shock body or even the mounting eye. Gas charged shocks are no exception since you are correct in assuming a possible explosion. It is always better to err on the safe side than hurt yourself doing the modification.

I'm just curious why your shocks are bottoming out. I have a set of KYB Monomax 561001 (front) and 565003 (rear) and they handle fine without any bottoming out. A tt should not change the range of movement (just make the range a little less since you've already preloaded the front) but a correct stock length shock should do fine.

KYB gas-a-just KG54309 (front) and KG5490 (rear) are also available for stock applications. Admittedly, KYBs may not be the best brand - but I've got to hand it to them for their lifetime warranty
 






You need to find out what Gerald and others are doing for shocks on their TTs. That's my best advice... No need to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.
 






I had Rancho 9000x's on my ex with 2.5 inches of TT lift and they worked fine. I upgraded to some bilstein 5150's recently and they do have more travel and ride better imo. You can also get some explorer pro-comps which are for 1-3 inches of lift.
 












Thanks for your replies, guys. The fact of the matter is that the shocks are not long enough to allow full extension. If I jack the front of the truck off the ground and remove the top bolt from the shock, the wheel assembly will drop another inch. The reason I noticed this in the first place was when I was replacing my brake rotors one day, I moved the fender liners out of the way and noticed that the upper shock bushing was stretched out as flat as a pancake. It actually looked as though it was going to squeeze through the hole in the shock tower. After a little experimentation, I think I have figured out what I am going to do. Let me know what you think. The stud is not mounted to the shock body. It is actually welded to the top of the shaft that slides in and out of the body. The bolt is 3" in length. The washers and bushings slide over the stud. I think I am going to cut off the 3" bolt and replace them with a 5" or 6" bolt. I will run a nut on the bolt, then the washers and bushings and then will raise the truck off the ground until I have achieved full droop. Then I will snug up the upper and lower nuts in order to get a good, tight fit on the shock tower. Does this sound feasible? Pease let me know what you think.

doug
 






The fact of the matter is that the shocks are not long enough to allow full extension.
The same is true to a degree on my 98 Sport (see my Broken front shocks, WTF? post). In my case, the factory spec shocks match wheel travel when the front sway bar is attached, but the moment the sway bar is detached and I put a wheel in the air, I start breaking shocks. My temporary solution is simply not to take my sway bar off.

Let me know what you think.
Anything you do to stock shocks is simply going to limit travel in one direction or the other because the amount of compression never changes. What I want is a shock with 2" additional extended length, yet which still compress down to the size of a stock shock. Well... that and limit straps.
 






I'm having the same problem on my 97 4x4. I have pro comp es9000's f/r. The backs are great front same problem. I was thinking of trying some skyjacker shocks for the 91-94 explorers w/ 2" of lift and using the adapter for the different top mount. I just don't know if the shock will clear the c/v's. I can't find a pick of that shock. Has anyone tried this?
 






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