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Moving Rear Shock Mount?

98XJSport

98XJSport

Destiny is the rising sun
Location
Western Maine
I have a shim out back to correct for driveshaft angles, and was looking at ways to straighten out the rear lower shock mount to hopefully help my shock bushings to last longer. Ive read several times that a good fix for a broken lower bolt is to cut/drill the old one out and replace with grade 8 hardware.

Is there any reason I couldn't do this, but move the mounting bolt up as high as I possibly can, and cut off what is left of the shock mount? Without looking Im thinking this could give me ~1" less hanging down below the axle, and I may be able to bend or grind the bolt to make things more level.

Thoughts? What size bolt would I need?
 
I did this by cutting off the old shock mount and using a piece of 2"X2"X4" channel. Drilling 3 - 1/2" holes and welding grade 8 mechanical locking nuts on the back sides of the 3 holes. That way I could adjust where I wanted the position of the shock. Then I used a grade 8 1/2"X3" bolt to screw em on.
 
gojeep's solution is perfect, but I don't have access to a welder.
 
Just out of curiosity, could you drive with no rear shocks for a half hour to an hour? Theres nothing around here for welding :bawl:
 
I drove with only one rear shock for a couple weeks after my bracket fell off, until I had someone weld it back on for me. Shouldn't be too bad.
 
its dangerous. i left off my shocks for 2 hours after installing my kit. hit some RR tracks at 25-30 and about lost control. might be that the tracks were like hitting bricks, but it still bout gt the best of me
 
So what is better about welding it compared to drilling a hole and bolting it?
 
If you look at gojeep solution, you will find a much higher clearence then your suggestion. Just bolting will work as well, probably.

Use big washers on the axle mount side to minimize flex due to not welding. Oh yeah, make sure the drilled hole is really close to the diameter of the bolt to avoid elongation from movement (your depending on shear strength based on torque). Because the hole drilled is bigger diameter than the bolt, there will only be a point (line actually) contact between the bolt and the mount. The result is very high preassure on the hole from the bolt, rather than distributing the force through the weldment.
 
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