WheelinJR
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
I've been having troubles with the factory stem style shocks, and eating thru the bushings or the hardware backing off. On top of that, I will need longer shocks soon and these are becoming too short.
So I decided to install another set of our shocks from work, for now, and get the upper mounts converted over.
Here is the problem I was having, notice the upper bushing is destroyed. I've had this happen twice now, and had the stem nuts back off a good 3 or 4 times.
So here are the new shocks, the old were 26" extended and 16" compressed. The new ones are about 25.25" extended and 15.25" compressed. These are our own Warrior 60.5mm Part #60502 shock, made by Heckathorn, so basically the same thing as a Rough Country Shock, which is also what came out of the Jeep. The pair cost me around $50
To solve the upper mount issue, I went with again with the conversion mounts we make at work, Warrior Part #161. Had I been thinking about it, I would have ground some of the powdercoat off and welded the upper bolt into place, and the side nut as well, woulda made install way easier. This ran me about $10 with all the hardware
To take care of the bottom, I didn't want to re-use the Rough Country bar pins, nor did I want to take the time to pound them out, so I got some of the bar pins we have at work. The nice thing about these is that they are made from solid stock, instead of tubing with flattened ends.
Finished product, notice I have no bumpstops in so I can fully compress the suspension to check lengths and measurements. Nevermind the fact that I just don't have any to put in yet.
In the end I went out and did the proper thing. Go flex it on something and see how it turned out.
They still peg out at full droop, as expected. Also, I still have room left on the compression, I think I can safely get another inch longer shock in there, and then with the ACOS I intend on getting, a 28" shock.
Here is the picture of it compressed, you can barely see it, but there is still about 3 inches from the shock body to the top of the shock, you can also see that my springs are just about fully compressed.
All in all this helped a ton, killed all those nasty clunk noises and really smoothed out the ride and steering. I definitely recommend eliminating your stem shocks on any lifted Cherokee
So I decided to install another set of our shocks from work, for now, and get the upper mounts converted over.
Here is the problem I was having, notice the upper bushing is destroyed. I've had this happen twice now, and had the stem nuts back off a good 3 or 4 times.
So here are the new shocks, the old were 26" extended and 16" compressed. The new ones are about 25.25" extended and 15.25" compressed. These are our own Warrior 60.5mm Part #60502 shock, made by Heckathorn, so basically the same thing as a Rough Country Shock, which is also what came out of the Jeep. The pair cost me around $50
To solve the upper mount issue, I went with again with the conversion mounts we make at work, Warrior Part #161. Had I been thinking about it, I would have ground some of the powdercoat off and welded the upper bolt into place, and the side nut as well, woulda made install way easier. This ran me about $10 with all the hardware
To take care of the bottom, I didn't want to re-use the Rough Country bar pins, nor did I want to take the time to pound them out, so I got some of the bar pins we have at work. The nice thing about these is that they are made from solid stock, instead of tubing with flattened ends.
Finished product, notice I have no bumpstops in so I can fully compress the suspension to check lengths and measurements. Nevermind the fact that I just don't have any to put in yet.
In the end I went out and did the proper thing. Go flex it on something and see how it turned out.
They still peg out at full droop, as expected. Also, I still have room left on the compression, I think I can safely get another inch longer shock in there, and then with the ACOS I intend on getting, a 28" shock.
Here is the picture of it compressed, you can barely see it, but there is still about 3 inches from the shock body to the top of the shock, you can also see that my springs are just about fully compressed.
All in all this helped a ton, killed all those nasty clunk noises and really smoothed out the ride and steering. I definitely recommend eliminating your stem shocks on any lifted Cherokee
