That BJ looks like it is about to go!

 

Ok duh for me.
Well this may have been much ago about nothing, got the shock on, and everything seems ok so far. Did have to jack the lower arm a bit to get it to mate up properly.

BJ is solid, only been on since late November. No give at all on them.
I tried, with tire and without, they don't budge a fraction.
It does look pretty nasty in high res though, granted. I ripped the boot a bit putting it on, and slapped some red RTV on it.

Tires not on yet, the lower shock bolt on the other side is gorilla tight, I actually broke a breaker bar trying to get it off.
I've snapped plenty of wrenches, drivers and sockets, never a breaker bar ,,, And not a harbor freight cheapy either.
Used lots of lube and heat, won't budge so I had to walk away for today.
No air tools, so hopefully I can convince it to thread out tomorrow.
I can only imagine what the rears have in store - They [the old ones] are Gabriel, by the way. One still had a sticker on, don't know if they are original or not, wouldn't "shock" me.

 

From experience, you did the hard ones first. I had the rears done in about 15 min on mine.

 

Did you take off the tires or jack it up to take the weight off the suspension when doing the rears ?

 

You have to.

 

I didnt remove the rear tires or jack it up to change out the rears.
I did remove the spare tire so I could access the driver's side top bolt for the shock.
You might have to raise it up on a 2x4, but my 4x4 sits high enough that I could sit cross legged underneath it to do the work. And, I am not a small guy.... 6'3

 

Yeah that rear top bolt looks challenging, I was eyeballing it today after finally getting done with the fronts.
Pretty well crusted, and doesn't appear to be much room at all to turn a wrench.
I think I'll soak em in lube overnight and give it a go tomorrow.

 

I've been shooting my shock threads with PB Blaster every couple of days for the past week. I really don't like changing rusty old shocks.

 

Meh, just put some antiseize on it when you install the new one, that you you wont have an issue with it.

(You can also go to most oriley's and they will have an impact gun you can go around back and use for a second to pop those bolts loose.)

 

Ditto on not jacking up the truck or doing anything outside of dropping the spare tire to change the rears. Took bout 15 minutes a side and I was talking to my brother on speaker phone while doing it. Truck only had 62k so the bolts weren't that bad for me though.