5th shock

[houkster]

New guy on the forum. Did a search on 5th shocks and basically it was felt the 5th shock (transverse) was useless or at best put there to dampen vibration thru the chassis. My problem with a just purchased 97' mountaineer was that even though the suspension felt strong and stiff, the vehicle would dive sharply into virtually non-existent dips in the road (side to side). A new Haynes manual awoke me to the fact that there was that 5th shock which gave me hope of solving the dipsy-doodle stuff. I ordered the shock (thank goodness) and then searched this forum. Guys were saying they just took the shock off and threw it away! I went ahead and had it installed and had actually forgotten in those 2 days that I had bought it to help the side- to - side tilting since the forum convinced me I had wasted my $. The opposite was the case. My Mountaineer actually goes down the road now barely noticing imperfections in the road surface!!!! There is definitely a reason for that shock and it's not vibration.
p.s. I had already put on new shocks and tires.

 

[brttwttnr]

Does it still sway side to side then?

 

['97 V8]

its all dependent on your vehicle.

 

[IAmTodd]

[QUOTE='97 V8]its all dependent on your vehicle.[/QUOTE]

Very true, they all have different personalities.

I'm gonna pop mine off one of these days to see if it rids mine of the high speed shakes.

 

[houkster]

1. yes, no more rediculous 'quick dips sideways on almost perfect surfaces'.
2. Mine is the V-8 AWD (theory would be if 4 door, extra wt. of AWD and V-8 could be more 'tilty'.
3. Then you could do the constant dipsy doodle like I was doing. Try balancing your tires instead.


Boy, I expected totally different posts. Like 'man, I'm going to try that. Thanks'.

 

[dreamr]

The 5th shock was added to help stabilize the gen I explorers. It was started sometime mid model run to stop the dreaded 60 mph shudder.......and continued on the second gen explorers. There were a few other changes on gen II explorers (such as IFS) to help with the roll over mania that also mostly eliminated this shudder. Though they all still shudder a bit anyway. especially with mud tires

In reality though the fifth shock was useless on the gen I for it's intended purpose and even more useless on gen II. If you lift the vehicle at all it is only limiting you.

Mine was tossed over 2 years ago, and several on the forum tossed theirs long before I owned an explorer. You won't even know it is gone

 

[houkster]

A new one made a huge difference in the above stated. The ride is much better. To lead the readers here to believe it's useless is irresponsible.

 

[dreamr]

A new one made a huge difference in the above stated. The ride is much better. To lead the readers here to believe it's useless is irresponsible.

Really?
It made no difference to the vast majority of folks on this site who have pulled theirs. From personal experience I know that replacing it made mine feel no different, nor did removing it and yes I experimented in all three configurations.

Then again mine never has done the "dipsy doodle" stuff you described even with no sway bars, no 5th shock, and 33's at 20 pounds of air

After a bit of lift it actually made the truck handle worse though so it was tossed in the garbage forever. In turn I freed up a bit of axle movement while offroad.

 

[aldive]

Mine has long been gone and I noticed no difference whatsoever.

 

[GJarrett]

If that's what he experienced, that's what he experienced. Vehicles are different. How about trying to find something more important to lose sleep over or get into a potential flame war about.

Oh yeah, welcome to the board.

 

[VOATMJ1]

If that's what he experienced, that's what he experienced. Vehicles are different. How about trying to find something more important to lose sleep over or get into a potential flame war about.

Oh yeah, welcome to the board.

 

[Hartman]

no offense, but what we have here might be a placebo effect.

mine has been gone for a while, and i haven't missed it.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I know that jtsmith saud he took his off then his wufe drove it and asked him waht he did because it was handling different so he put it back on.

Mine is still on but has 181,000 on it so i'm sure it is shot & I don't experience any handling problems.

I thin it is the no two Explorer/Mounatneers are the same.

We see plenty of people running 31x10.5x15 with no lift & no rubbing issues while others have had to do a TT or trimming to keep them from rubbing.

 

[VTOSS_Man]

A new one made a huge difference in the above stated. The ride is much better. To lead the readers here to believe it's useless is irresponsible.

no offense, but what we have here might be a placebo effect.

mine has been gone for a while, and i haven't missed it.

I too replaced mine and noticed a nice improvement in ride.
For the people who tossed theirs and it made no difference, the shock was probably already worn out, so of course you wouldn't notice a difference.

 

[drmoore71]

I just got a new set of 31 x 10.50 15 BFG ATKO's and had to go back to have them rebalanced after a week because of the bad vibration coming from the front. The fellow who did the Balancing the second was awesome, and eliminated the front end bounce. I now notice that the rear end is vibrating at 60-65, just slightly enough for me to notice it. I had an epiphany last night while I was trying to fall asleep that I remembered the "5th shock shimmy" and decided I might need to replace my 137k mile original. Where can I find it and about how many $ does it cost? Please let me know. Thanks in advance for your replies.