Do these look close to matched ?
Got these black Monroes from Murrays, or Orilies whatever they are now.
This shock is supposed to fit my 1500, problem is is once installed with the bushing, there is no way I am going to get a nut on the stem, nothing shows.

I am about to take the damn things back tomorrow, unless I am missing something here.
The shock is fully extended, and the bushing and cap cover the stem, so threading on the nut is not possible.

You can see from the pic that the old one is obviously slightly thicker and longer, couldn't match the stems up because I had to cut the old crusted one off to get the shock out.

 

Those new ones look to be a bit shorter than the old ones. If they are that short on your truck the would max out on stroke anyway which would wipe them out in no time. Do you have a leveling kit or lift on your truck? Taller springs in front? Looks like you might need shocks for a 2" lift by the looks of things. That is if your old shocks weren't maxed out to begin with.

 

Hmm, well I can safely say I have done no lift mods to my truck, if it was done before I owned it, thats something I never thought of.

 

Well I would definitely say that you have some kind of lift if the factory size shocks don't fit. They should not be that hard to get installed. Look and see if there is a spacer on top of your coil springs. I would bet that is your problem. Either that or the new shocks were misboxed from the factory.

 

Is your truck an off road edition? I would be willing to bet that if those shocks were the stockers, you have the off road package.
Regular rams came with Black painted shocks.
Off road editions came with white painted shocks.

I do remember that there was either a 2" leveling kit or lift installed from the factory. (On the off road edition)

 

Its a 96 1500 Laramie 2WD, I'd be shocked if it was off road.

I'll have a look tomorrow, don't know if anything can be determined from this pic of it before I took it out

 

The fact that it is a 2wd would have been helpful from the start;-). I have no real idea as to why they don't fit now other than maybe they gave you shocks for a 4x4 instead of 2wd.

 

DO you still have the box that they were in? If you do, post the model number of them up.... This is odd...
From Monroe's website, and your pics, it almost looks like you have a 911102 Reflex absorber, which they show will fit your truck...
http://www.monroe.com/catalog/shockselector.asp

 

Oh yeah, I got 4 boxes out in my truck, I'll haul my lazy *** out there right now and post the info ,,,, ok, monroe sensatrac 37102
28-83576

I guess the chance remains a previous owner did a lift, I got the truck in 2002

 

my 2wd has white shocks....