Crawled under my right front corner to track down the source of some rattling I was hearing and came across a completely destroyed lower shock bushing. I also noticed that my jounce bumper was missing. I replaced the cracked one on that corner of the truck a couple years ago and I know I installed the new one correctly, but Michigan's roads/potholes were apparently brutal enough to destroy and evacuate the new one pretty quickly.

Could the lack of a jounce bumper/bump stop have caused the shock bushing failure? I'm wondering if the shock was bottoming out and the lower bushing was essentially taking the place of the bump stop.

 

How old is the shock? My rear rancho 5000 did the same thing. Not having the bumper could have helped it along. If the shock still works look online for replacement polyurethane bushings. They last longer and take more punishment.

 

The shock had just under 40k miles IIRC. I thought about just replacing the bushing, but I had to split the top nut to get it off, damaging some threads in the process. The replacement Gas Magnum I got from O'Reilly has a lifetime warranty. For being a cheap little polystyrene cylinder, those jounce bumpers are expensive! About $20 a piece...so I'm thinking about saying screw it to replacing the bumper and just warranty out the shock if it goes bad again.

Looking at the way the A-arm is polished under the LH side, you can tell these bumpers get some good use, and with potholes being worse at the edge of the roads, the RH side would see even more punishment.

 

How hard is it to get the jounce bumpers off? Mine are toast.Any suggestions as to brands?

 

Easy enough to get off (just pull/pry). Much more difficult to get on (a great deal of lubrication, pushing and cursing required). The only aftermarket part you'll find is Dorman 905211, though if I remember correctly, it's not any cheaper than the OEM replacement (PN 52087992). I have a 2001 2WD 2500, so part number may be different for other configurations.

My opinon is that unless you're replacing your worn out coil springs at the same time, don't bother.

 

Thank you. I have the same model, the same year.
Stay well.