Shock too Short? (f-250 shock mount)

[4X50 Exploder]

Should my front shock max out 2" short of my normal ride height even without all the parts put back together?

These are the shocks that my "Good Buddies" @ Superlift say should be on their 5.5" Piece of "Shlift"...

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

um... thats just the boot, not the body of the shock

 

[Maniak]

No, the shocks shouldn't be the limiting factor. On droop, its hard on the shock.. on stuff you break the lower shock mount off.

The trick will be to get one longer BUT that won't be so long that at full stuff you will top out and break the lower mount.

If you cut off the factory upper shock mount and put on an f-250 mount you can put on a much longer shock and be able to use all your suspension travel. With the f-250 mount we can flex enough to pull the spring out of the upper bucket (still working on fixing that better).

~Mark

 

[4X50 Exploder]

um... thats just the boot, not the body of the shock

That's not just the boot, the picture's not great but that is the top of the upper mount's lower bushing with the shock fully extended. It lacks 2" of length while drooping and I dont have any weight other than the axle housing and the extended radius arms on it. I can't imagine what it will be with tires and everything installed...

No, the shocks shouldn't...
If you cut off the factory upper shock mount and put on an f-250 mount...

~Mark

Thanks Mark, I knew it wasn't right before I posted. I just needed validation before I call them up (AGAIN) and ask for something that fits...

I am very uneasy about how the springs sit in the rig! Frankly, I wouldn't want to take it out past the end of the driveway the way it is now.

The new upper mount sounds like a good starting point! Do you have a link that shows some pics of what you have done?

This thing feels like it will have way more droop than compression! Have you had to do more modifications to keep from tearing up your front drive shafts during flex?

For now, I am going to have to settle for trying to get SupperLift to ship me longer shocks. Whatever I put in there now is going to be disposable. I have to get the body on to see how much compression I have.

I'll have to go with some homemade limiting straps for now; I have to get this front end together so that I can get the SOA done so that I can start roughing on the body of the truck so that I can figure out tire size so that I can figure out gearing so that I can...

......This thing has to fire up and move on its own power by this February! I don't care if I am sitting on milk crates and the body is held together with duct tape; I will take my 1950, F-1, 4X4 for a test drive on my 50th Birthday!

 

[little x]

After installing f-250 towers and longer shocks you may need to clearance the axle shaft window in the passenger side arm. You will be able to run 35's easy with the new lift. You don't need the body to test for compression, just remove the spring and push the axle up until it hits the bump stop.
This Link will show you some pics of clearancing the axle window.

 

[4X50 Exploder]

After installing f-250 towers...
This Link will show you some pics of clearancing the axle window.

Thanks, I'll be taking the grinder to the opening today.

 

[Maniak]

I'll look for a thread with the pics on how to do the conversion, but basically you cut off part of your factory upper coil bucket. You cut off the part the shock connect to. Then you take just the shock mount for an f-250 and weld it to the explorer upper coil bucket (they don't have a coil mount, they have leaf springs)

Here is a shot I took when I put on the new extended arms where you can see the f-250 mount. The f-250 mount uses the same style mount as the bottom of the shock... no more post mount.

We didn't open the window for the shaft until we put in the extended radius arms. I'm only running 3.5" spring with a 1/2" spacer so I wasn't getting enough movement to hit it hard but I did see some wear on the axle when we finially got to opening the window.

Here is a different angle of the coil buckets with the f-250 shock mount. This is from the day they showed up from UPS.

As for your current shock.. Do a little measuring... You need to know what its extended and its compressed length is.. Now figure out if you put on a longer shock to get more droop will its compressed length be too long? IF its too long at full compression it will top out and break the lower mount. It is actually possible that with your shock mount where it is that you won't be able to get a shock in there to give you full up and down travel. You may have to limit the droop or the stuff since the distance from the upper and lower shock mount are somewhat close.

~Mark

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

ahh, ok i see what im actually lookin at. i failed to realize that the shock wasnt bolted in in the pic

i think all of the manufacturers use the shock as a limiting factor out of the box

 

[4X50 Exploder]

...This is from the day they showed up from UPS.

~Mark

UPS? Do you have to order these from Ford or can you get them from the Bone Yards? Does the year of the F250 matter?

I figure that I might as well open up the window for the shaft while it's wide open and accessable...

 

[Maniak]

UPS? Do you have to order these from Ford or can you get them from the Bone Yards? Does the year of the F250 matter?

I figure that I might as well open up the window for the shaft while it's wide open and accessable...

I cheated.. I got the entire pile of stuff in that pic from another member. IIRC it was 94crawler that I got it from (there is a thread on here of when he did it, but no how to).. I haven't been able to find a how to on it.. Just people mentioning it and showing it already done..

If they were cheap enough, I'd just get them from one of the dealer vendors on here. If they are more than $50 for the set I'd go to a junk yard. IIRC they are riveted on at the factory so getting them off in a yard might be interesting. I don't know what years they came from.. Just know its a eye mount (not a post mount like I saw one person have on here).

~Mark

 

[Maniak]

I almost forgot to mention a way for you to cheat.

Before we did the f-250 mount I needed to fine tune the shock we had on there.

Under the factory upper shock mount I put on about 1" worth of washers, then the bushing. That pushed the shock down enough that I could get all my up travel and all my down travel without using the shock as my limiting factor which is extremely bad to do.

~Mark

 

[4X50 Exploder]

Well, they are not in stock at the dealer. Had to order them @ $19 each. (P/N E5TZ 18183A). Knowing how much I hate taking those rivits out in the garage, there's no way I'd do it at the Bone Yard even if they were free!

Thanks for the great inputs! As much as I want to skip this for now, I better do it right while I don't have to take all apart to get to it. I'll take some good measurements and pics before durring and after...

 

[4X50 Exploder]

Good fortune at the Bone Yard!

The local Yard was willing to cut them off for $20 each. That meant I could work on them this weekend rather than wait till Wednesday.


Get out to the donor truck and they are bolted on! That dropped the price to $15 and I can start playing now.

FYI; This type of bolt on’s were only on the Heavy Duty F250s that I came across. This rectangle style is the part number E5TZ 18183A and I got them off a 1997. I found a 2003 that had a similar set up but the plate area that bolts to the frame was a diamond shape.

 

[4X50 Exploder]

Modified using F250 shock mount.

Here's my first bucket after modifing it with the F250 upper shock mount. It extends the top of the shock 8" higher than the stock bucket. I only went that high because "more is better" and I do not have a clearance issue with using the body of my '50, F-1. I'm very happy with the way it turned out for my first time ever welding!

 

[4X50 Exploder]

Mounted on frame

That's coated cable there for my home made limit strap...

 

[4X50 Exploder]

Problem solved!

I was able to return the Superlift Shocks and some other stuff to Streetside auto.com even though it was ordered back in January.

I replaced them with the F-250 Shock towers and a set of Ranchos with 15" of travel. I also had to modify the way they mount to the long radius arms to keep them from rubbing when drooping.

I'm glad that I put the re-assembly on hold to do this now rather take it apart again later! Now if I only had the budget to get some flexier springs; I can allready tell these suck!

Springs gotta wait, I have to get this thing rolling...

Thank you, to all that helped me with your inputs!

 

[Maniak]

Great job on that.. Looks nice and clean.

Just an FYI for anyone else looking doing this. Double check your clearances of the top of the f-250 shock mount and the stuff under the hood..

With the X body there the Brake booster and the A/C box are pretty close. In my case we have less than 1" of clearance. If you mount the f-250 shock mount too high it won't clear those items..

This wasn't an issue for 4x50exploder since thats not an X body going on there...

~Mark

 

[4X50 Exploder]

My version of How to...

I cheated.. I got the entire pile of stuff in that pic from another member. IIRC it was 94crawler that I got it from (there is a thread on here of when he did it, but no how to)...

Not sure if this is a good "How To" but it is the way I went about it...

1. With the new towers in hand, I held them up to the old buckets (while still attached) and eyeballed them to see if any of the existing holes would line up.
   
   
2. I determined that the upper most existing hole would line up but it would put my tower allot higher up than everything I have seen an example of. (~8” above the stock height) Estimating the fender height of my F-1 body this didn't look like it would be a problem for me. Most of the pictures I have seen of this mod look like they mounted the new tower down at the bottom of the bracket netting them only an inch or two of clearance for their master cylinder and air box…
   
   
3. Time to take off the shock/spring buckets. Taking off anything that is attached to the frame with rivets has an easy trick to take the pain out of it. Simply use an angle grinder to cut a slot into the accessible side of the rivet down as deep as you can without hitting the surrounding frame or bracket. It should look like a regular slotted screw when you are done.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Now take a cold chisel and run it along the base of the head and the head cuts off pretty easy, especially if you use an air chisel! Now all you have to do is use a punch and a BFH to knock the rivet the rest of the way through the hole. I have a long, tapered center punch that works great because it puts a nice divot into the center as soon as you strike it the first time. This makes it easy to stay in the center for the rest of your strikes. It’s also nice to have more distance between your fingers and that hammer as you get tired! This method only takes about 20 min to get one bracket off…
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. How high do you want your new shock tower mounted? With the old bracket removed, hold the F-250 tower to the frame and measure the distance from the bottom of the tower to the bottom of the frame.
   
   
6. Rough cut your brackets. I used a white paint pen to mark my line on the bracket on the back side. Mine was held on with one bolt in the existing hole that I wanted to reuse. You will want to clamp yours in place using the measurement you got for mounting height. . I started to use a die grinder to precisely cut along my mark and decided that was going to take forever! Out came the Saws-all and I cut a rough line at least a ¼” away from my mark.
   BEWARE THE SEATING AREA OF YOUR SPRING! “You do not want to cut into the area needed to seat the spring fully!”
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Actually, on the second unit I completed, I didn’t bother marking anything except the line for the height I wanted the new tower at. I noticed that my cut was going to be very close to dead center of the raised ridge that runs down the bracket between the spring and the shock.
   
   
8. On my second unit, I left a tab/ear attached with my rough cut so that I could bend it and weld it into place so that it may help strengthen the spring bucket and look more professional. On the first unit I used scrap to fill in the area after the fact and that method took allot longer than leaving an ear…
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Notice that I also left the material on my rough cut that was below the area of the shock tower.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Next, use a wire wheel on the parts to get as much crap as you can off. (Not shown in picture) Now bolt your rough cut bracket back into place on your frame. You can now hold up the F-250 tower to the bracket and start using the grinder to nibble away your rough cuts for a nice smooth fit where you want it..
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. Now that you have the spring bucket ground down to the fit you want, CAREFULLY check behind the frame to see where you want to drill holes for mounting the shock tower. The driver side of the frame has allot of lines running behind the shock tower but the passenger side is relatively clear. Drill your holes and bolt the shock tower in place next to the spring bucket. Run as much of your weld as you can while they are securely bolted in place. On my first unit I just tacked it together and when I welded it together off the vehicle it warped a good bit.
    
    
12. Remove the assembly from the vehicle to finish up your welding. The ears can be formed by cutting away material and hammering/welding the ear into shape a little at a time. Grind down any of the weld on the back side that interferes with the unit seating flat against the frame.
    
    
13. Unlike my pictures, I said earlier to wire wheel them as clean as you could while they are apart. That makes it allot easier to clean and prep for painting!
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. Time to mount them to the frame. The rivets on my frame were 7/16” but I opted to widen them out to ½” and reuse the flange head style bolts that held the towers onto the donor truck. I kept the 7/16” bolt size for the bottom holes. I also drilled a 7/16” hole on the side of the shock towers to mount a plastic coated cable for my limiting straps.
    
    
    
    
    
    
15. Mounting the new Rancho (999036) shocks to the radius arms, I discovered a binding at full droop. I used 5/8”x 4-1/4” bolt, and built a 5/8”x 1” spacer for the shock attachment. I used ½’ bolts for attaching the shock bracket. To attach the limiting cable, I reused the ½” spacer on the upper bolt, which I built for the shock mounting but discovered that it caused the shock to bind. After I have wheels and tires on, I will recheck my shocks clearance because I feel I may have to increase the shock mount to a 1-1/2” spacer and add a ½” spacer to the two bracket attachments to maintain better clearance. (Rancho Specs. )
    
    

All in all, I am very glad that Maniak, and little x chimed in and recommended this simple modification! It took me two partial days in the Man Cave to complete this mod. but I have never welded before and I took it very slow to make sure I wasn’t doing more harm than good…

 

[Tbars4]

...Great information..:biggthump

...Holy cow......1/2 a century old..:

..Your working like your birthday is tomorrow...When is your birthday??...

 

[Slowlyvverot]

this is a really great thread. I'm glad to finally see a write-up of the f250 shock tower mod and there's plenty of other great info in here as well. This is an exciting project!