The Last Gen 2 Shock Swap Thread

[Stricken]

however no one ever did a proper measurement to see if the shock body crashes before you hit the rear leaf bump....sooo that could be a problem.

Literally the very first post in this thread. There's about 3/8" to spare if you compress the rubber bump all they way down to the metal.

Not sure I ever bottomed out the rear, but I did catch air a few times without any obvious side effects.

 

[Tx State]

I have gotten air born with gen 2s in the front while in 4 wheel drive and didn't have any issues.

 

[ogdobber]

I have gotten air born with gen 2s in the front while in 4 wheel drive and didn't have any issues.

yet...like i said, time will tell. I guarantee it

Literally the very first post in this thread. There's about 3/8" to spare if you compress the rubber bump all they way down to the metal.

Not sure I ever bottomed out the rear, but I did catch air a few times without any obvious side effects.

3/8 of an inch. ever heard of axel wrap? that rear end is very dynamic, especially with the stock leafs.
good news is that will only destroy the shock mount and/or the shock itself

the proper way to tell how much room is on the rear is to put a clip on the G1 rear shock shaft (in place of a o-ring to see max movement) and hammer it. If you are left with 2 inches of unused shock travel, then you can safely put in a 2 inch longer shock. Do you think the ford engineers left that much on the table? They left 0 on the front...

I'm not totally against the rears, just skeptical. But for street? send it.
Fronts on the other hand, no way without a limit strap, hat mod or internal shim and then you still loose travel. 1.5 inches at the shock, how much is that at the tire? 3+ inches? no thank you

 

[Jonny V]

As with just about every other high performance/racing vehicle ever built, when you try to go cheap, you **** shit up. Then you get to pay twice.

 

[deadbird]

NipplesNchowder I need to figure how how the upper and lower plates go on the top of the strut. Made the same mistake you did. Can you help?

 

[pat247]

NipplesNchowder I need to figure how how the upper and lower plates go on the top of the strut. Made the same mistake you did. Can you help?

On the top spacer the thickest side faces the tire, the spacer under the shock tower you want the thinnest side to face the tire. When positioned correctly you should have the same amount of threads showing on all three studs.

 

[deadbird]

Got it! Thanks for the reply. What a pain in the ass.

 

[killvino]

I finally got this done yesterday, Gen 2 shocks all the way around. These turned out to be much easier to install than expected, no spring compressors or straps required if you remove the 13 mm nut under the cap in the center of the hub. In the back I used a two foot long 2x4 to compress the shock to get it in the top shock mount.

Test drive consisted of ten miles city streets and about ten miles of highway. One of the city streets had six speed tables in a half mile stretch that I normally avoid. The raptor handled it all very well and the ride quality was superb.

About to do this swap, can you elaborate or explain more how you did this without a spring compressor and straps? Are you just talking about removing the spring from the Gen2 or the Gen1s? What about reinstalling the front coilovers into the truck? No straps there either?

Thanks

 

[pat247]

About to do this swap, can you elaborate or explain more how you did this without a spring compressor and straps? Are you just talking about removing the spring from the Gen2 or the Gen1s? What about reinstalling the front coilovers into the truck? No straps there either?

Thanks

Like I said in the previous post. You do not need spring compressors or straps for any part of this shock swap. If you remove the 13 mm nut in the center of the hub the lower a-arm will drop far enough to get the gen 2 shock into the lower perch. I watched 2 or 3 videos on how to do this to get an idea of what the process involved. I'm 70 years old and did this by myself in my driveway so it is doable but a second pair of hands would have made the job much easier. In my opinion the key thing to do is get the orientation of the spring hat set correctly when you reassemble the shocks so that when you put the shock up in the shock tower the three studs go right in place and the lower shock eyelet is positioned to slide into the lower a-arm. Once the shock is in place use a floor jack to slowly raise the lower a-arm to reconnect the upper ball joint, tie rod, and watch carefully as the IWE goes back in place and put the 13 mm nut back on. Torque all nuts to factory specs. I had my local ford dealership torque the lower shock bolt.

Pat

 

[killvino]

Like I said in the previous post. You do not need spring compressors or straps for any part of this shock swap. If you remove the 13 mm nut in the center of the hub the lower a-arm will drop far enough to get the gen 2 shock into the lower perch. I watched 2 or 3 videos on how to do this to get an idea of what the process involved. I'm 70 years old and did this by myself in my driveway so it is doable but a second pair of hands would have made the job much easier. In my opinion the key thing to do is get the orientation of the spring hat set correctly when you reassemble the shocks so that when you put the shock up in the shock tower the three studs go right in place and the lower shock eyelet is positioned to slide into the lower a-arm. Once the shock is in place use a floor jack to slowly raise the lower a-arm to reconnect the upper ball joint, tie rod, and watch carefully as the IWE goes back in place and put the 13 mm nut back on. Torque all nuts to factory specs. I had my local ford dealership torque the lower shock bolt.

Pat

Awesome, that was what I was picturing, thanks for clarifying. How about getting the springs off the gen 2 shock? Either way, this makes it much easier.