My mechanic did the exact same thing when I had my TM kit removed. I have new bolts welded into place.

 

May be a silly question, but since monroe now makes our struts, do they make the quick struts? I would rather replace the whole assembly, with new springs in all, quick and easy.

 

You can do that, if they make them, but you will not have the TM leveling kit, which caused the problem (modification) in the first place.

 

I havnt had the TM kit installed in a long time. I am stock. I think I am just going to call my dealer and try to get them to replace my struts before I am out of warranty. It's crazy to pay for struts after only 32k miles. At least I can get another 2 years out of the new factory struts before I have to dip into my pocket for the ranchos...

 

That seems just a hair over retarded. If Rancho's shocks need alterations to help make it installed and work then they should fix it. Has anyone said anything to Rancho? You should be ticked you paid a mechanic extra labor to craft that thing in there. I wouldn't pay for a mechanic to change it out, personally, but if I got to the point of removing mine and put the Rancho up there I'd be pissed. Especially, if I needed to pull out a welder.

 

Actually I'm pretty sure the blame falls more within Dodge design than with Rancho.
The shock itself needed no modifications to mount, however the design of the truck doesn't allow you to get to the bolts of the upper shock-mount. My guess is that even the dealership would need to do the same thing with factory shocks, which btw have already proven to be garbage.
I wish I had a better explanation of the "upper shock-mount" but I have no idea what it's called - maybe upper control arm?? I did see it for myself after I thought my mechanic was trying to screw me, but the truth is you simply cannot get to the bolt heads to tighten them once the shock is in place.

 

It has nothing to do with rancho, even getting new struts at the dealer will have the same problem.

Let me explain...

You know how the top of the strut assembly bolts to the truck with 3 small bolts? Those bolts are sticking out of the top plate of the strut, so you slide the strut into place and bolt them down. The only problem is, that they will spin as you try to bolt them down. So when this happens, our mechanics got around it by taking the strut top plate off the assembly, and spot welding each bolt head to the top plate, putting the top plate back on the strut, slide the strut in and boom it mounts right up.

I will show you a pic....monroe's website calls for a replacement of that plate when they do the struts with there monroe struts...

http://catalog.tenneco.com/monroe/pr...catalog=MONROE

This picture is off there site, its called the "strut mate bearing plate" and thats whats on top of your strut when you remove it and look at it. See how the bolts stick out on top? well when this plate is on the strut, there is no way to get to the heads of the bolts to prevent them from spinning.

This picture actually shows the replacment monroe uses when doing a strut change, and it looks a little different. It looks like the bolts won't spin on this one. Thats why they replace it.

So, our mechanics simply spot welded them so they wouldnt move. It's not a big deal at all....just built poorly.

 

Then that just means Dodge was retarded on the entire front suspension.

 

I can't understand for the life of me why they would do away with the Torsion bar setup and go with this 2wd setup accross the entire line. Its madness...

 

I have Bilsteins on the back of my 05. Love them!