Shock stud extenders

[Chris.S.]

^^Ouch.
Keep us poted on your story and how it goes.

You say had the Torsion keys cranked all the way, what do you mean by that? Did you put new keys in and crank them or did you just crank your stock keys? You mentioned your cv angles, but how much did you raise the front end from stock?

I see you're a ford tech, so your opinion and feedback is very valuable...

 

[racinranger]

Well i got a joint in it today. what i did is this. i ran out of bolt with the stock keys. i found some longer bolts in our hardware catalogue. i belive they were 80mm vs the stock 60 mm but dont quote me. i cranked them to the point that my truck was level with 6400 rear shackles. so i was up about 2.5 in and i knew i was playing with fire. the key was almost agains the crossmember. I used ford fx4 (rancho) front f150 front shocks. i had to massage/adjust the mount alittle to not contact the cv joint. i was planning on strapping the lower arm this week. with that shock the upper balljoint/arm was SLAMMED down and maxed out. so i was being easy or so i thought with it. Im at this point thinking that turning the wheel and letting the truck compress the suspension allowed the cv to touch the shock side loading it. the combination of sideload and over extension caused it to grenade. This truck has 5k miles on it btw so its not just a beat up old joint. i got a replacement in there this morning and lowered the keys a bit. im going to see about getting some straps and getting a good guide into just what you can actually get safely from these trucks

 

[Chris.S.]

Hey thanks for the update. That's some really good experimental field work you've done for the cause here....


I guess the moral of the story so far would be, watch the bj's in the corners...

 

[racinranger]

HAHAHAHAHAHHA, what you mean is CV joints. but seriously i've putt my 08 to the test. i am thinking that 12* is the magic number any more than that and you playing with fire coated in gun powder. Try it...... and see if you get off the beach! i had to have a god forbit.....jeep help me off. good thing ford gives the fx4 towpoints in front. sorta makes me worry why they put them there.

 

[Yellowsplash]

I dont understand how you mounted an F-150 shock. The shock design is totally different....pics?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I'm guessing he means off of a 97-04 style f150 with the torsion bar front suspension, not the 04-09 with the strut style suspension.

 

[Yellowsplash]

I know that, but I pulled the shocks at work the other day. While the f150 shocks have a longer actual shock body,the shock body on the rbv are shorter but have a bar running down to the lower mount on the control arm. Doesnt the lower portion of the shock body on the f150 (where the rbv shock narrows down to the bar part) interfere with the cv shaft?? Could this be the reason he grenaded the cv shaft?

 

[racinranger]

No no, you are correct about the shock being different. i also said i had to dent/grind the shock a little bit at the bottom. Yea it was sketchy, but i did it more as a test then too keep it longterm. I also mounted the shock more forward on a kinda cheesey adapter i made. It looked alot like the the camburg mount/rewzig mount. i think its rewzig he has the 5.0L 07 FX4. either way it DOESNT work, so dont try it. i grenaded the cv joint due to overextension and binding of the cup. I am in the process of talking to camburg and getting there peices for the camburg upgrade. It consists of straps/bilstein 7100's and relocation mounts. Its a good thing i work for the deal it affords me alot of leeyway in my testing.

 

[badbronc92]

Chris, did the 3/4" spacers increase your cv angles any more than they were before? I would say my cv's are very close to 12* but i haven't even cranked it a full 2 inches. My stock bolts still have thread left.

 

[Chris.S.]

Chris, did the 3/4" spacers increase your cv angles any more than they were before? I would say my cv's are very close to 12* but i haven't even cranked it a full 2 inches. My stock bolts still have thread left.

My protactor has disapeared so I can't be too accurate with angles now but the spacers did allow my cv to drop down a little further than before so at full droop my angles have gone up some.

I'm going to bring it in the shop later today if I get a chance and check everything over. The front end seems to "clunking" a little more than it used to. I could be imagining things but I wanna check the ball joins and cv's now that I've driven it around for awhile.

I'll see if I can track down an angle finder and if I get the truck into the shop today (if it's not today, it'll be tomorrow) I'll double check all my current #'s and post back with an update.