How to line up the front shock in the mount

[Highway76]

is there a trick to lining up the front shock with the bolt holes? I put the old spring on my new shock, but now the bolts are misaligned. Don’t want to run a new shock. Do you just get the bolts on the holes and then use a pry bar through the bottom to rotate it around?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Highway76]

Long story short, i bought the truck used, and the previous owner used a leveling block on the front shock instead of raising the perch. I knew this going in, but I didnt realize they had to cut the stock mounting hard ware to fit the block in. So now I have to get two new mounts. Not sure how to get them lined up and bolted on to the shock correctly.

 

[Riddick]

This is what I watched when I went to mid perch. I wouldn’t think it would be a good idea to use a pry bar and twist without compressing the spring. You could damage the spring collar and or shock. It’s pretty easy once you do the first one.

 

[Highway76]

That would be easy, I’m replacing shock. With the lift block someone else installed, they cut the studs off the mount.

 

[pastorwug]

The video makes the mod look fairly easy. What are the benefits of a mid-perch mod? Any parts necessary besides the tools needed to compress the spring?

 

[Riddick]

That would be easy, I’m replacing shock. With the lift block someone else installed, they cut the studs off the mount.

Seems to me mid perch would have easier than a lift block. I guess the previous owner didn’t know what he was doing. I would place the top hat in the bucket to get an idea of the orientation. Assemble shock as close as possible to alignment then tweak from there with spring compressors as in the video. Unless someone has a better idea, I don’t know how to align when out on the work bench.

 

[alcoolaid]

One of the studs lines up with the lower shock mount bolt. I marked mine with a sharpie before disassembly. But here is a picture that should help.

 

[Highway76]

Thank you for the help guys. I’ve ordered two new mounts, I plan on assembling the shock minus the spring, and then installing it to mark it up.

I don’t know why someone would put a leveling block on a gen 1 and destroy the factory mount in the process.

Pretty frustrating when a 2-3 hr job turns into a few days because of unforeseen problems. Oh well, could always be worse!!

 

[Highway76]

I got them in and replaced the rears as well. If anyone runs into this spacer/cut stud problem in the future, the way I got around it was to dry fit the upper shock mount attached to the shock minus the spring. Once I got it in there I marked the top of the shaft and marked the top of the mount. Once I put the spring on, I just had to line the marks up and it went in perfect.