84FLH
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- February 14, 2016
- Messages
- 168
- Reaction score
- 25
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2000 Mercury Mountaineer
The Vehicle: 2000 Mountaineer. 396,x.. miles. Original motor and trans (lost reverse last year, all forward gears work well).
Current Ride Quality: Rear leafs (Dayton) are one year old but have no real spring to them. They lost most of their arch when vehicle came off lift afte rinstall. 50 lbs of car camping gear in the back makes vehicle squat. Up front, I think torsion bars reached end of useful life. Seem to have lost "springy-ness". Mounty rides hard, even with one year old Monroe shocks (their newest replacement for Sensa-Tracs).
The Plan: Thought Rancho's adjustable RS9000 series front and rear might compensate for weak leaf springs and torsion bars. Ordered 4 from Rock Auto. Arrived in a few days. Made visual inspection of rear shocks. All looked good. Not so for front shocks.
First Surprise: One front shock looked good. Other shock had huge, glompy, cold looking weld where lower rod connects to shock body. I accidently unlocked the top rod while inspecting this shock. The top rod sprang into place very fast, almost like a switchblade. Caught me by surprise. I compressed it and locked it back down, so I could return it because of the weld.
Return, Replacement: I returned the front shock with bad weld. Kept other front shock and both rears. Replacement front shock arrived this week.
Todays Trouble: Today I setup for front install. Started by unlocking the top rods of both front shocks. I figured they'd spring out fast, like the returned shock but they didn't. Not at all. On both shocks I had to keep unscrewing and unscrewing the top rods to get them fully extended. I then put the bottom of shock against my work bench and pressed by hand on top of top rods. Both rods immediately collapsed about 1" back into the shock body, without any resistance for that 1". Pulled the rod back out and pressed on it again. No collapse but I didn't trust it.
I stopped the install because I have questions.
Questions
1) Should those top rods spring out very fast, as on the shock I returned?
2) Or is it normal to have to keep turning the buggers to get them fully extended?
3) Should those top rods collapse 1" into shock body without resistance, by hand pressure; does that indicate something's wrong in the shock?
Summary: With my oil change mess-up, and now the front shock issue, I'm 0 for 2 today.
Thanks, everyone.
Current Ride Quality: Rear leafs (Dayton) are one year old but have no real spring to them. They lost most of their arch when vehicle came off lift afte rinstall. 50 lbs of car camping gear in the back makes vehicle squat. Up front, I think torsion bars reached end of useful life. Seem to have lost "springy-ness". Mounty rides hard, even with one year old Monroe shocks (their newest replacement for Sensa-Tracs).
The Plan: Thought Rancho's adjustable RS9000 series front and rear might compensate for weak leaf springs and torsion bars. Ordered 4 from Rock Auto. Arrived in a few days. Made visual inspection of rear shocks. All looked good. Not so for front shocks.
First Surprise: One front shock looked good. Other shock had huge, glompy, cold looking weld where lower rod connects to shock body. I accidently unlocked the top rod while inspecting this shock. The top rod sprang into place very fast, almost like a switchblade. Caught me by surprise. I compressed it and locked it back down, so I could return it because of the weld.
Return, Replacement: I returned the front shock with bad weld. Kept other front shock and both rears. Replacement front shock arrived this week.
Todays Trouble: Today I setup for front install. Started by unlocking the top rods of both front shocks. I figured they'd spring out fast, like the returned shock but they didn't. Not at all. On both shocks I had to keep unscrewing and unscrewing the top rods to get them fully extended. I then put the bottom of shock against my work bench and pressed by hand on top of top rods. Both rods immediately collapsed about 1" back into the shock body, without any resistance for that 1". Pulled the rod back out and pressed on it again. No collapse but I didn't trust it.
I stopped the install because I have questions.
Questions
1) Should those top rods spring out very fast, as on the shock I returned?
2) Or is it normal to have to keep turning the buggers to get them fully extended?
3) Should those top rods collapse 1" into shock body without resistance, by hand pressure; does that indicate something's wrong in the shock?
Summary: With my oil change mess-up, and now the front shock issue, I'm 0 for 2 today.
Thanks, everyone.