Gentlemen,

Over the weekend I attempted to install Bilstein 4600s up front on my 1992 Dak (extended cab.) The shocks I bought were the 24-184-557s, which all the application guides said were good for the truck. (As a note, all the websites said "not for quad cab," but my truck is an extended cab, not a quad cab, and people helping me on the phone all seemed to agree that a quad cab would have been a truck with 4 doors, so I was fine.

On the top mounting point, the shocks I removed had a metal washer and a rubber bushing below on the coil side, then came the frame, then bushing and washer, and then nut. There was also metal sleeving that went down the inner diameter of the rubber bushings.

The "Billys" came with similar hardware, except instead of two rubber bushings, it came with a single tapered rubber bushing. The tapers made it look like it's supposed to be pressed into place in the hole in the frame, almost like a grommet.

I tried to press it from below with a jack and some metal rods, but I succeed only in lifting the truck off the other jack.

A coworker has suggested that I try again, but lube up the bushing with dish soap.

Should I try and make some sort of impromptu bushing presser with a bolt, nut, washers, and a spacer?

Any ideas or similar experience?


___________
(Also, I installed rear Billys on the truck but I had to grab a pair of channel locks in order to twist the mounting ears in the shock bushing to the correct angle. They needed to be at a ~45° angle to sit flush against the crossmember, but were parallel to the axis of the shock out of the box.)

 

Try warming them up and use WD40? Do the Bilsteins resemble the shocks you took off?

 

Hahaha. OK. If it hadn't been raining, I would have taken more pictures, but I was crawling around in foul weather gear totally covered in grease and water, so I didn't have it in me to document the job.

But here's what I've got!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/IMG_1703.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/IMG_1702.JPG

Those old ones on the ground are from the rear. 216k miles on OEM Shocks! What the hell mom and dad?! Hahah. Can you sort of see how the mounting ears on those rear shocks are at a 45° angle?

Please note that in the picture of the Billys, the bushing is just temporarily sitting in the wrong spot (below the washer) on the bottom-most shock. The correct stack-up is shown on the shock second from the bottom. And can you see how the mounting ears on the new rear shocks are not at that nice 45° angle?

 

The Bilstein with the bushing stack is a front shock, right? A picture of the front shock (original) and the Bilstein front shock side by side would be helpful. When you compare the old bushing to the new, what do you see? My guess is that the rubber bushing should just slide into the hole where the original mounted. Is there corrosion? Maybe the mounting holes required for the Bilstein is larger?

I suspect that you may be making this more difficult than it needs to be. Try putting the lower bushing on the shock shaft, feeding it through, add the upper bushing and plate, and then bolt it all together. If it compresses the bushing a bit so the mounting is firm, you've got it made.

WD40 will make sliding the rubber bits together easier.

The ears can be rotated to whatever is necessary with a vice grip or a screwdriver prying through the mounting hole. It will be stiff, but it is designed to be that way.

Am I telling you anything you don't already know?

BTW, my truck is 4wd so going out and crawling under for a peek won't do any good.

 

Yes. The one with the bushing stack is up front. The thing is, the bushing style is completely different on the Billys. See the picture below. There are two rubber pieces on the old shock, only one with the Billy.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/IMG_1713.JPG

Putting the bushing on the shock and pressing it all together won't help because the shock just takes up all the pressing force. Tried that. Also, I tried bolting it all together, but it won't suck the bushing up through the hole. It just smashes it down on the spring side of the hole in the frame.

Good to know that the mounting ears are supposed to be rotated. That gives me a good bit of mental comfort.

I appreciate all the input.

 

Would it all go together if you used the old bushings?

Looking really close, that bushing just doesn't look right. They look one piece and they should be two piece. And way thinner . Is there a chance they sent you the wrong bushing set? I looked at the oem pic. and that's what they show. So maybe they used a different design parameter.

Does the mounting hole on the chassis look like it would accept the bushing--is it big enough for the bushing to be pressed in? If it is, you might try pressing it in with a bolt and washer on one side and a socket that's big enough that the bushing will fit into it on the other side. Suck the bushing into the hole. Use lube or grease to ease the rubber in. If it isn't, open it up with a dremel with sanding drums to open the holes up.

Too bad you don't live in Tucson. We'd have 'er done in an afternoon, and not even get wet.

 

You know, I had wondered myself if it was the case that they had spec'd out the wrong bag of hardware & rubber for the application... But I did get it installed last night!

It went like this:

- I jacked the front end up and put it on stands
- I put the bottom end of the rubber bushing into the opening of a 1" socket, and used a couple of ratchet extensions to jam it up into the hole.
- On the top side, I was generous with the dish soap as lubricant (WD-40 wasn't as slippery)
- For the passenger side, I was able to just muscle the thing into place. For the driver's side, i used a bottle jack that I remembered I had. That was super easy.
-Once the nut on top of the stack up was snugged down, the rubber pancaked out flat like it is supposed to look.

And HOLY SMOKES. The thing floats like a cloud and drives like it's on rails. Harder to break the rears loose under hard acceleration, and even braking is better! No wheel hop, less porpoise and float on the freeway. I don't know if the Billys are just that great, or if any darn new shocks would have felt this good, but all I know is that it was worth the outlay of time and money to get these done.

Special thanks to Brian in Tucson! If I'm in the area to visit my buddy (med school student in Phoenix,) I'll have to stop by for a beer with ya!

 

Yaay!