Installing non vehicle specific shocks?

[jjonez]

I received my pair of bilstein 33-185552's for the rear and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for making them fit properly onto the shock mounts. The metal sleeves that came with the new shocks are slightly too small in diameter for the lower shock mount bolt and slightly too large for the upper. I've looked for alternative sleeves but I haven't found anything that would fit the bolts while still fitting inside the bushings installed in the shock eyelets. I have some other ideas for making them work but I would like to know if there's a "proper" way of going about this. Thank you!

[Cuong Nguyen]

I did something similar and took some bilsteins for a Chevy truck and drilled out the sleeves larger. To do it right, you'll need to press the sleeve out and drill it. Or maybe you can find a Machine friend make you some new sleeves. Other option is to cut the stock shock stud off and weld in thr right size stud for your new shocks.

 

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[hawairish]

Does it look like the upper sleeve on the shock would fit the lower stud on the truck? And lower sleeve fit the upper bolt? On the shocks I've got for an F-250, the upper and lower bushings just needed to be swapped to make it work, but the lower bushings didn't survive the press-out. However, Rancho (and probably also Prothane and Energy Suspension) has an assortment of poly shock bushings, so that's what I went with for my lower bushings. The shock bolts are 12mm upper and 16mm lower...but, you can use 1/2" and 5/8" ID sleeves with little to no modification, though the bushings I've seen (and what I used) are a bit narrower than our mounts so you might need some washers to sandwich the bushings.

[jjonez]

I did something similar and took some bilsteins for a Chevy truck and drilled out the sleeves larger. To do it right, you'll need to press the sleeve out and drill it.

 

 

This was actually what i was thinking for the lower mounts. They're just barely too small so removing a bit of material should be ok. And luckily the sleeves didn't come pre-installed in the bushings so I can just throw them in a vice and go to town.

 

Does it look like the upper sleeve on the shock would fit the lower stud on the truck? And lower sleeve fit the upper bolt? On the shocks I've got for an F-250, the upper and lower bushings just needed to be swapped to make it work, but the lower bushings didn't survive the press-out. However, Rancho (and probably also Prothane and Energy Suspension) has an assortment of poly shock bushings, so that's what I went with for my lower bushings. The shock bolts are 12mm upper and 16mm lower...but, you can use 1/2" and 5/8" ID sleeves with little to no modification, though the bushings I've seen (and what I used) are a bit narrower than our mounts so you might need some washers to sandwich the bushings.

 

The bushings and sleeves are identical for the top and bottom of the new shocks. Luckily the new sleeves are 1/2" ID so the tops should be all set with some washers like you said. Are you sure the bottom bolts are 16mm? The sleeves seem to just barely be too small, which makes me think its closer to 14mm but I'm not positive. For the bottom I don't think there's any wider ID sleeves that will fit the included bushings, so I was thinking I could do what Cuong suggested above or even buy the larger sleeves and just drill out the bushings to fit them in. Any issues that could come of that?

 

Thanks for your input guys!

[hawairish]

Probably worth double-checking the lower mount of course, but I went by what Monroe and KYB said the size was and it sounded right (not home to confirm on my truck, though). They also list both bushing lengths as 42mm (1-11/16"). I was hoping to find the Rancho p/n I used, but no luck. I remember having difficulty finding specs on them, too, but whichever set I got, they fit the lower mount just fine (with a really thick washer).

[jjonez]

Here's what I ended up doing:

 

 

 

 

The upper bushing and sleeve worked fine with the stock mount and bolt (1/2" ~ 13 mm), I just used a couple of 13mm ID fender washers to take up the slack and allow the bolt to apply torque to the sleeve.

 

For the lower mount hawairish you and I were kind of both right. The stud has a tapered section so the surface that the shock eyelet sits on is actually thicker than the threaded portion. Turns out this surface is a perfect fit for the shock bushing with no sleeve, so I greased it up and it slid right on. The bushing was also the appropriate length to extend a little past the tapered section, allowing it to be compressed before the stock nut and large washer were stopped by the taper. This allowed me to get the right torque specs without over compressing the bushings. It's not ideal since it's not a flat surface, but I don't think it should be an issue since the torque is only around 50 ft lbs.

 

Thanks for your help guys!

[dezm]

On 9/17/2017 at 11:33 PM, jjonez said:

Here's what I ended up doing:

 

 

 

 

The upper bushing and sleeve worked fine with the stock mount and bolt (1/2" ~ 13 mm), I just used a couple of 13mm ID fender washers to take up the slack and allow the bolt to apply torque to the sleeve.

 

For the lower mount hawairish you and I were kind of both right. The stud has a tapered section so the surface that the shock eyelet sits on is actually thicker than the threaded portion. Turns out this surface is a perfect fit for the shock bushing with no sleeve, so I greased it up and it slid right on. The bushing was also the appropriate length to extend a little past the tapered section, allowing it to be compressed before the stock nut and large washer were stopped by the taper. This allowed me to get the right torque specs without over compressing the bushings. It's not ideal since it's not a flat surface, but I don't think it should be an issue since the torque is only around 50 ft lbs.

 

Thanks for your help guys!

Hey I've just run into this same issue. I can't see the photos you posted but how did it work out running the shocks mounted with no eyelet between the bushing and the bolt? Did it cause any issues?

[dezm]

I've ordered the following sleeves from an industrial store: https://www.mcmaster.com/

 

I based the measurements off of the Monroe website: http://www.monroe.com/en-US/e-catalog/37204

 

. Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by dezm

[jjonez]

It seems to be working fine, havent checked up on it much.  If you have the same shocks, the lower shock eyelet bushing will only fit over the stud if there is no metal sleeve inside.  For the upper eyelet, the sleeve that comes with the shock is a good fit for the bolt that's already on the truck, so I didn't buy any additional sleeves.