well the numbers match.... The 4x4 have a different model number...


And I may be wrong on the shock colors, or it may just only work on 4x4's.

 

does your truck look fairly level?

 

Wow 1+ I didn't even think about the infamous suspension lean, but doesn't that usually affect the driver's side?

 

Yeah it looks fairly level, no noticeable angles.

I'll just take the old shock in when I return the others, see if they can match it up with something a bit larger.
Alls I need is less than an inch, the top of the shock rod is almost flush with the bushing.

I often seem to have problems with parts, did you guys see my rear brake saga a couple months ago ?

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ght-drums.html

 

with the shock fully extended it should match up, you could try putting a jack under the lower control arm to see if it'll make the top of the shock go through, but if there is a lift then, like speeddemon said, it wouldn't be long before you hit a pothole or something and popped the seal on the shock. and if you had the 4x4 shocks they would be way too long, so that ain't your problem.

i do have a question, not trying to offend you or anything (may have been covered and i missed it), but are you putting both rubber pieces on the shock before you put it in? its supposed to be (from the bottom up) washer, rubber grommet, through upper control arm, rubber grommet, washer, nut.

 

Shock has no problem going through upper arm, its just that theres nothing to thread the nut to once the bushing and cap are on ,,, And yep, the lower assembly was on, pretty much a mirror of the setup on the old one.

 

1st pic shows that the nut will thread, but just barely, without the bottom being pinned in. The nut is just gripping the 1st threads, and would not screw in all that much, probably not even enough to get the stem to poke through.
If the bottom is pinned, the stem is completely buried by the bushing.
Second shows how far the bottom is off with the top bolted up.
3rd pic, side by side.
Old one is a little larger, doesn't seem to be enough of a difference to really matter, unless the stem was an inch or so longer.
Don't think it was, but don't remember for sure, I had to hack it off to get the shock out.

So it appears that my options are:
* Compressing the spring a bit by placing a jack under it and lowering vehicle on it.
* Takes these back and get shocks about an inch longer in total length.

Don't thing the 1st is a very good idea.
I'm mystified, if these are suppose to pretty much drop right in, something is not right here.
The old one was under a bit of tension, which was released when the bottom bolt came out.

 

Take em back....

 

A turn for the worse here.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed the bottom of the ball joint is almost touching another part, part of the coil brace or whatever it is, as seen in the first pic.
The 2nd pic, of the other side, is at least 2 inches away from the same point, as it should be.
You can tell too, by eyeball and the pic, that the upper arm is at quite an unnatural looking angle, whereas the passenger side is almost level, so obviously something has failed here in my drivers side suspension, which likely is the reason why the shock won't bolt up correctly.

 

That would depend on whether or not your driver side is sitting back on the ground with the tire on it. If you have the driver side jacked up and no pressure on the spring then it will hang like that from the spring pressure pushing down on lower a-arm.