My "new to me" Bilsteins are in.

[Glenn B]

Picked up a slightly used set of 5125's today for the front of the XJ. Already had the "stem to eye" gizmos in the garage, so figured I would toss them in.


The old generic white rockets came out with ease. I collapsed them, and they stayed that way. One of the shafts appears to have bluing on it mid length. I knew I over heated them often... but damn.


The new ones were a son of a bitch to colapse and get in posistion. I finally got them both in. I should have waited and used the lift at a friends shop. I oriented the upper bolts front-to-rear, and the lowers left-to-right. Seems like that should get me the least binding when flexing.


As it sits, they are a bit too long. Too little up-travel. I neglected to take in to account the length of the upper adapter. Now I need to look in to lowering the axle end mounts. Perhaps mount them to the lower long-arms?

Hope to take it out this weekend and see how they do.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

mounting the lower mounts to the arms themselves is going to negatively effect your valving. hack off the axle side lower mounts and run tabs off the side of the LCA to mount them just above the head of the LCA bolt. most folks run them this way and it works well.

 

[Glenn B]

That is a good idea. Thanks, I think I remember seeing a pic or two of them done that way.

 

[ktm racer 419]

ive ran my shocks off my longarms before (and midarms). worked fine, didnt notice any difference. in theory it will make the shock less effective, but its so close to the axle i doubt you will notice. One issue i had though, was at full droop my shock bodies would hit the plated unibody and eventually bent on of my shock shafts.

I ultimately ended up running them lower on the lca mounts when i upgraded to 2.0s, not sure what you are running for an axle or brackets, but i ended up slightly bending my 1/4" unboxed mounts over time.

 

[Glenn B]

Just thinking out loud here after a long days work... my long arms are set-up in radius fashion. How much shock performance would I really lose?

 

[GrimmJeeper]

there's a formula out there, but basically the closer to the pivot point you get the harder it is going to work the shocks. they'll heat up and fade faster. if you are cycling the suspension at speed for a long time you'll notice it, crawling probably not so much.

I have a habit of getting shocks so hot you can't touch em, so YMMV

 

[Glenn B]

I have a habit of ruining generic/rancho/DT/etc... shocks too. Talking maybe an inch back from stock. Most of my driving is crawling, except when I am do 45+ or - through the wash getting to the next rock crawling place.