Follow up: A Shocking Turn of Events

[Jimal]

As a follow up to my post asking about shock, I seem to have found my solutions. I thought I would share them in case anyone else has this question... or perhaps to serve as a warning for others.

FRONTS
I went to NAPA and they came up with a pair of Rancho RS5151 shocks. Picked up some Grade 8 hardware from Home Depot and the fronts popped right in.





REARS
Despite measuring the one remaining shock that was half attached to the truck, I ended up with the wrong rears from NAPA (right length, wrong eye size), I used the Rancho specs that were posted here (thanks BHC41051!) and found that the RS5143 was close enough on the compression and extension and had the 3/4" eyelets. Home Depot doesn't have anything that big, so I visited McMaster-Carr's website for some Grade 8G goodness. Bolts and shocks arrived today and I was able to mock one up.









As you can see, the shock fits, but I'll need to do a couple things before I can tighten everything up. For starters, I ordered 6 1/2" bolts for the top and they are too short. I'll have to see what the next length up is. On the bottom the bolts are long enough, but I'll need to cut a flat into the washers in order to get them to sit flush. To address the bushing issue and to be able to tighten things up properly, I just ordered a couple packages of the Rancho RS984 shock bushings. The are the urethane version of the bushings that come on the RS5143, and more importantly have a metal sleeve that I can use on the rubber bushings.

I love this stuff.

Just a few more things to do out of dozens before this thing hits the road again.