stupid shock question

ok my rough country kit just got in..im kinda stumped is to why im able to extend the shock with my hand and close it with my hand, this seems wrong....yeh i know there cheap mono tube shocks but id think they would be harder to extend and close then that, also they didnt come with anything holding them together. any input is welcome!!

thanks
Sean

This probably doesnt help really but everytime I have ordered shocks they have come compressed....I don't think they are supposed to be extended but I could be wrong.

My OME shocks will stay extended, but I can compress them if I lean on them. When you say you can extend/compress the shock by hand, how hard is it to do?

Greg

You should be able to extend and compress the shocks with your hands. But it should not be easy to do, also the shocks should once compressed extend slowly. If they do not they could have a defect, be just very cheap shocks or be stearing stabilizers lol.

Oh, I almost forgot I am supposed to be getting two of the rough country shocks off of ebay in a week or so. Let me know what you find out so I can get the YJ shocks instead which will work for my 4.5 in lift.

A buddy of mine just got a Black Diamond kit for his YJ...and his shocks didnt extend by themselves. So he called quadratec and a couple other places and they said thats how they are supposed to be. Something about they need to cycle up and down while on the vehicle for the valve to "break in". Then they will build pressure somehow. Didnt make sense to me... But when I got my RE 4.5" kit I got DT3000 shocks and they were like that too. After about a month I took a front off and it would extend on its own slowly. Shocks that you get from autozone or napa that have the wire holding them together are dynoed before packaging. In other words a machine extends and compresses them a bunch of times before they are shipped....

Dont take anything I said to heart...because I cant confirm it. I guess my point is your shocks arent doing anything unusual. I can confirm that after about 5000 miles on my lift everythign is great. Rides great, shocks feel good... Call around and let us know what other jeep places say.

Justin

I've had Rancho shocks that I could relatively easily compress and decompress by hand, and Black Diamonds that I could not do by hand without some serious grunting. Both were perfectly functional when mounted in the vehicle. I think it depends on the brand and design.

yeh its not really easy but not very hard to compress them. thanks for the help everyone. now my question after taking all the shocks out of the boxes i find that the rear shocks have no bushings. this is pissing me off, not a very big deal but just more time its gonna take me to get the lift on. is this normal? i mean i can't see how they would ship the shocks with no damn bushings.

thanks
Sean

XJ4Roks said:

ok my rough country kit just got in..im kinda stumped is to why im able to extend the shock with my hand and close it with my hand, this seems wrong....yeh i know there cheap mono tube shocks but id think they would be harder to extend and close then that, also they didnt come with anything holding them together. any input is welcome!!

thanks
Sean

Click to expand...

cheap and mono-tube do not go together. some of the cheapest mono-tubes are the Bilstein 5100s at $75.

Hydraulic (oil) shocks come that way. Rancho 5000/9000, ProComp 3000, and Rough Country shocks are examples. Changed my RS 9000 shocks today for some Bilstein 5100 shocks that are gas charged. THEY come compressed and held with nylon strapping. When you're ready to install them you compress them and remove the straps. Bilstein, OME Nitrocharger, and Edelbrock IAS shocks are examples of high-pressure gas shocks. They offer better cushioning ride due to the compression qualities of the nitrogen gas used. Hydraulic oil does not compress, thus a stiffer ride.