Shock Mount Question (fun with MS paint)

[Robb]

Hey Guys!
UM, this is going to get confusing..............let me see how to ask this. Okay, my rear sway bar is history. With that gone, that leaves a sway bar mount on the axle tube. This mount has two holes in it, one above the axle, one below. I am mounting my shocks to the upper of these two holes ( I have heard the rumors of these mounts breaking, I don't believe them). So, here comes my problem. See if I lose you here with this explanation. The hole in the mount is front/back in the plate, which is side-to-side. The top mount for the shock is a few inches further back than the axle. If I try to bolt directly to the mount at the bottom of the shock, it will be at a horrible angle with no real play at all. I need to transfer the front/back mounting to a side-to-side mounting which will allow the bottom loop of the shock to rotate and all will be well. SO, I need to find a shock bracket that will bolt to the sway bar mount and end up with way I can mount my shocks with the bolt (through the loop) going side to side.

Confused Yet?

I will attach a couple of Paint pics below (first attempt with Paint, so don't laugh too hard). I can't find any mounts like this locally without having them machined. Is there somewhere online that can help me out here? It seems like such a simple thing, yet, I am having a hard time finding it. Please Help If You Can!!

Robb

attached is a pic of the sway bar mount from the rear with the bracket I need in blue:

 

[Robb]

this would be a basic side view of what I am looking for:

Confused even more?

 

[Muskrat]

Robb, I know the 4x4 shop up here has what you need. It's an adapter to go from the stud style shock to a double eyelet shock. That should work fine, it has a bolt in the bottom, and the shock mounts are just as you have drawn

 

[Kirby N.]

Warrior makes those. The Canadian Guy in the projects section who does a huge write up everytime he does a mod and has a blue 4x4 with 33s has those- you could ask him or go to warrior's site. www.warriorproducts.com

 

[ld50]

The Canadian Guy

hey! that`s me!

they are part # WAR161

they are holding up just fine and most Jeep stores would have them in stock I`ll bet ya.

 

[Robb]

Thanks Guys!!! That is exactly what I am looking for!!!

 

[X-1]

Robb,
You can also go with a universal post mount, you can find those in the help section of any parts house, run about 5 bucks a peice.

 

[Kirby N.]

Sorry Id50- You are that guy, I have some universal post mounts on mine, they suck! The shocks come in at an angle and they don't compensate for it. Id's set up would fix that problem. After I get the mounts like him, we'll have the same set up! Or trucks will be identicle except for color and # of Doors!!

 

[Steve A]

Been There Done That.

Guys, I don't recommend this set up for two reasons....

1. You still have some off set in relation to the top mount even just sitting there with out movement.

2. Now an even more important angle comes into play here. After installing my other halfs (Girlpower4x4)'s rear shock mounts the exact same way as shown above. The bottom swaybar to shock U bractet bolts broke twice on her rig. So I climbed underneath it again and saw what it was doing this time as I knew it was a design flaw versus just bolt failure.

What we found:
When you move the axle up or down in relationship to the body the angle of the bottom shock bracket wants to change the angle of the shock to the axle from the 90 degrees we had it as well.

Our Answer:
We used our stock bottom shock bracket which is now on top of the leafs (SOA) conversion, and are using stock 91' cherokee rear shocks which seem to work but we need to drill the holes on top a little to match it better. But for now this is much better and no problems at all. You can also use any other place including the sway bar mount hole. However, your shocks will perform better closer to the wheel. So long as you maintain roughly that 45 degree angle behind the axle that the stock Explorer bottom shock mount has will allow the shock angle movement at the axle.

I hope this helps you out and others, just my .02

 

[Robb]

Now an even more important angle comes into play here. After installing my other halfs (Girlpower4x4)'s rear shock mounts the exact same way as shown above. The bottom swaybar to shock U bractet bolts broke twice on her rig. So I climbed underneath it again and saw what it was doing this time as I knew it was a design flaw versus just bolt failure.

Steve, thanks for the reply! I have to admit tho, you have confused me (not hard to do) I don't know what you mean by the "swaybar to shock U bracket."

Robb

 

[ld50]

Or trucks will be identicle except for color and # of Doors!!

Ya think so?

my other halfs (Girlpower4x4)'s rear shock mounts the exact same way as shown above. The bottom swaybar to shock U bractet bolts broke twice on her rig. So I climbed underneath it again and saw what it was doing this time as I knew it was a design flaw versus just bolt failure.

Hey, I`m not quite following you there. When I rigged this up I did notice that the articulation would change the angle of the shock to bracket but I figured it would be minimal and compensated for by the rubber bushing. I figured the possibility of more force being forced sideways would just move the bracket since it is only held with one bolt.
I haven`t seen any indication of bracket movement after wheeling yet, but have pondered welding the bracket onto my skidplates in order to utilize the shocks damping power more effectively. (the further away from the tires the less effective they are)

obviously I`m worried if you had problems, the pic shows my current setup, please tell us more.

-thanks

 

[Steve A]

No problem guys,
I didn't really clarify myself too good.
The U bracket I'm referring to was the lower shock mounting bracket you would be useing in your original plan.
quote/ id50
I figured the possibility of more force being forced sideways would just move the bracket since it is only held with one bolt. )

True, however this movement will get even worse over time And it does put undue side pressure on the shock. And it can elongate the single sway bar hole over time as well, among other problems.

As you can see with this set up
Dead Link Removed it allows the shock to change it's angle in relationship to the axle when extending or under compression, this is done by turning bracket at the 45 degree angle towards the rear of the axle. This way it will not put pressure on the side of the lower shock bracket or shock when articulating.
Sorry guys, I hope this helps better.

 

[Kirby N.]

Ok, How does the upper mount have that much travel? What shocks are those? and Arent they to short to allow full articulation? Uptravel and down travel?

My set up is some Nissan Studs in the lower sway bar hole, but I am thinking of fabbing some mounts like Id50, but I will weld them on eleminating the problem of the hole getting jacked up.

 

[Robb]

The upper mount has a t-bar through the loop, you can rotate it as far as you want.

And in theory, his shock length has only changed a couple of inches from stock. If anything, it is too long now, because it is now on top of the leaf pack. But being too long is a good thing since articulation has prolly increased with the removal of the sway bar.

Steve, you have gotten me thinking about this. Mounting to the sway bar bracket would be a constant change of angle for the shock and the axle moves up and down. I will have to continue to think................

Robb

 

[Steve A]

Kirby and morrisey0, One word of advice if I may.
If you weld your brackets at the sway bar holes make sure your bracket gives the shock full mobility when your axle moves without binding the shock on the side of the bracket....

If you mount it at the sway bar hole.
My recommendation would be to turn your bracket at roughly the same angle as our lower shock mount, so you will allow the mount to clear the shock as it moves up and down without binding on it.

As far as our shock movement is concerned it is actually very well. We now have more shock movement roughly 2" over the Rancho 9000's we had mounted on the top sway bar hole.
Also the rear tires rub the inside body on full flex so flexing isn't a problem.
Well, were all here to help each other and I hope this all might shed some light on the subject.

 

[Byrd91]

LD50, how much were those shock mounts and which supplier did you order them from?

Thanks

 

[Kirby N.]

Note: Longer shocks are not always a good thing... mine are too long and I don't have enough up travel and they break the mounts . They are Duff crappy shocks so I don't care. I am, however thinking about mounting them like the the Ranger. I am thinking about getting some of the upper mounts from a junk yard and buying some universal lower mounts to weld on the the axle. I really dont think there has been a good fix mentioned yet, I think it would be best to ditch the current set up and totally redisign it. Those upper mounts suck anyway. I hate the dogbone and mine clunks back and forth all the time. Now that I look at Steve A's picture, why not the old upper swaybar hole and a universal weld on lower mount?

 

[Byrd91]

Good idea, I forgot about the upper swaybar hole....Bottom would be pretty easy too because it would be parallel right.

 

[ld50]

Hey, been offline for a bit, sorry to be out of action!

So you were reffering to my modified sway bar mount brackets that I had for a while??

I would agrre then, that it wasn`t the best idea. It would not have lasted too long from all the forces on the bracket. It would inevitably fatingue enough to break!


I got those Warrior mounts from an off-road Jeep place called Gemini auto sales. They had a couple of packages on display, so I was led to believe that they sell alot of them, probably there is a common Jeep mod that utilizes these mounts.

They cost me:
51.55 Canadian $

 

[Kirby N.]

Byrd, That is what I am thinking. I will look tomarro night. The lower mounts would be an easy fab, especially if you buy some of the universal weld on mounts from your local 4x shop. I have a line on some used RS900s, so I guess I need to see how long the shocks would need to be eh?