Bear with me, there is nothing to be learned here, this is just a painful, humbling odyssey which reminded me I’m not a mechanic, amateur mechanic, or even a guy that might look like a mechanic if you dressed me up like one. Really at best I’m capable of only the simplest of ‘car maintenance stuff’ & bolt on type modifications & I need to remember that going forward.
It all began when I learned I couldn’t drive another mile without some Rancho 5000X shocks, I hate you people
.
So I ordered a set from 4wheelparts and they sent me:
1) one functional rear shock that matched the part number I ordered;
2) one dysfunctional rear shock that matched the part number I ordered;
3) one functional rear shock that did not match the part number I ordered; and
4) one functional front shock that matched the part number I ordered.
Here are the two correct rear shocks that I ordered, one would only compress half way:
I contacted the company and learned that I had to make a warranty claim on the defective shock, all 4 went back.
I then ordered a set from Allen’s Off Road and a few days later I received 3 Rancho 5000X shocks and one 9000X front shock.
Starting to think the Shock Gods didn’t want me installing Ranchos.
Anyway I contacted the company and Allen called me and advised a replacement would ship out immediately. That was a standup move, I was happy.
Until I began installation.
Front shocks of course were easy, took about 15 minutes to remove them.
Inside of the next 15 minutes I snapped both bolts off the driver’s side rear.
Undeterred, I moved over to the passenger side where I managed to remove one of the bolts cleanly but smoothed the second down into a nice round ball.
Frustrated, I baked a pizza
And drank some beer
Then I began googling & learned what a monumental pain in the sack this particular job has been for so many people. I did know enough to begin shooting the bolts with PB about 2 weeks before I started but that did not help, apparently.
I went through all the options, air chisel, cold chisel & BFH, drill, lift the body & get after it & on & on & on. I figure I oughta at least try to break them off with a chisel before taking any more drastic steps & fortunately there was a drain hole just south of the driver’s side shock bolts that was positioned in a way that it allowed me to get the chisel in there & whack the hell out of it with a small sledge hammer. Didn’t work, not even a little bit.
I next thought about lifting the body but who’s kidding who, that would’ve only ended with more breakage and probably a trip to the ER so I decided to go with the @derekmac & @Erik V method of cutting access panels in the bed. Not ideal, but I’m not concerned with the aesthetics of that part of the Jeep (no passengers, seats or rugs, my tool box covers the entire rear) & the sheet metal panels are easily removable for future accessibility; also not concerned about resale value as I’m keeping this puppy until I (or the TJ) drop dead anyway which, given my Darwinian proclivities, could be sooner rather than later.
Now, the Jeep is in the garage, wheels off & tools everywhere.
I realized I needed an open work space in the bed to cut these holes so off came the spare, out came the tool box & the soft top (which has been down since spring) had to be put back up however I can’t put it up in the garage because the ceiling is too low. So, I lifted the top up & out of my way & secured it to the ceiling with a tie-down then left for Home Depot to pick up some Dremel cutting wheels.
About a half hour later I returned with my bag of stuff & thinking it’d be good to have some daylight on the subject I hit the garage door opener, forgetting that I had the soft top tied to the ceiling & directly in the path of the door.
Did you ever see something happen you knew was wrong but your brain couldn’t comprehend it? It was like that.
What I saw was my soft top moving and the garage door bending at an angle so the right half of it was all the way up while over at the left side an entire panel was still visible.
I froze, then hit the button for it to come back down & it began binding & making an awful sound so I jumped out of the car & ran in & pulled the emergency cord to release the tension. That’s when I realized what I had done, the monumental act of stupidity that I had accomplished.
As I stood there looking at what appeared to be a completely bent garage door and/or set of tracks I thought to myself, yea, I’ll just swap in some new shocks, save $150 on labor, mmm hmm, yup, I’m a mechanic now, I got this – now I’m $3,000 for a new garage door & I STILL haven’t gotten the old shocks out.
As I studied the door situation I saw that the cord that pulls the left side up was out of its spool & all bunched up like a tangled pile of extension cord. This thing:
Hoping that was the only problem I popped the cotter pin, disconnected it from the bottom of the door, untangled it then rewound the spool, reconnected it to the door & slid the cotter pin back in & boom, straight as an arrow. I felt as though I could add that repair to the overall success of the shock job, I needed the encouragement.
Back to the shock job.
It took me 3 days & about 7 wheels to cut those miserable fucking nuts off & even after I got them off there was still enough of the bolt in there that I had to pound away with a punch & drill to break through. What a pain in the ass, I broke about 7 drill bits getting it all out of there. Had to pick up some grinding wheels as well to smooth things out. I can’t tell you how many trips to Home Depot I made (& Lowes to get new grade 8 hardware), because I don’t want to count.
Installation of the new shocks (I painted them black as well) was relatively uneventful, but the PTSD suffered during this process may be with me for a while.
I began the job last Sunday & finished yesterday, 8 days. EIGHT DAYS! Of course it was an hour here, a few hours there, but still…
I had that feeling “WTF am I doing… this is so not worth it… why?”, but then I looked at my rig parked up at the end of the driveway after the test drive & remembered:
I can't wait to hit the trails this Saturday :aplastao::ARMS1:
It all began when I learned I couldn’t drive another mile without some Rancho 5000X shocks, I hate you people
.So I ordered a set from 4wheelparts and they sent me:
1) one functional rear shock that matched the part number I ordered;
2) one dysfunctional rear shock that matched the part number I ordered;
3) one functional rear shock that did not match the part number I ordered; and
4) one functional front shock that matched the part number I ordered.
Here are the two correct rear shocks that I ordered, one would only compress half way:
I contacted the company and learned that I had to make a warranty claim on the defective shock, all 4 went back.
I then ordered a set from Allen’s Off Road and a few days later I received 3 Rancho 5000X shocks and one 9000X front shock.
Starting to think the Shock Gods didn’t want me installing Ranchos.
Anyway I contacted the company and Allen called me and advised a replacement would ship out immediately. That was a standup move, I was happy.
Until I began installation.
Front shocks of course were easy, took about 15 minutes to remove them.
Inside of the next 15 minutes I snapped both bolts off the driver’s side rear.
Undeterred, I moved over to the passenger side where I managed to remove one of the bolts cleanly but smoothed the second down into a nice round ball.
Frustrated, I baked a pizza
And drank some beer
Then I began googling & learned what a monumental pain in the sack this particular job has been for so many people. I did know enough to begin shooting the bolts with PB about 2 weeks before I started but that did not help, apparently.
I went through all the options, air chisel, cold chisel & BFH, drill, lift the body & get after it & on & on & on. I figure I oughta at least try to break them off with a chisel before taking any more drastic steps & fortunately there was a drain hole just south of the driver’s side shock bolts that was positioned in a way that it allowed me to get the chisel in there & whack the hell out of it with a small sledge hammer. Didn’t work, not even a little bit.
I next thought about lifting the body but who’s kidding who, that would’ve only ended with more breakage and probably a trip to the ER so I decided to go with the @derekmac & @Erik V method of cutting access panels in the bed. Not ideal, but I’m not concerned with the aesthetics of that part of the Jeep (no passengers, seats or rugs, my tool box covers the entire rear) & the sheet metal panels are easily removable for future accessibility; also not concerned about resale value as I’m keeping this puppy until I (or the TJ) drop dead anyway which, given my Darwinian proclivities, could be sooner rather than later.
Now, the Jeep is in the garage, wheels off & tools everywhere.
I realized I needed an open work space in the bed to cut these holes so off came the spare, out came the tool box & the soft top (which has been down since spring) had to be put back up however I can’t put it up in the garage because the ceiling is too low. So, I lifted the top up & out of my way & secured it to the ceiling with a tie-down then left for Home Depot to pick up some Dremel cutting wheels.
About a half hour later I returned with my bag of stuff & thinking it’d be good to have some daylight on the subject I hit the garage door opener, forgetting that I had the soft top tied to the ceiling & directly in the path of the door
. Did you ever see something happen you knew was wrong but your brain couldn’t comprehend it? It was like that.
What I saw was my soft top moving and the garage door bending at an angle so the right half of it was all the way up while over at the left side an entire panel was still visible.
I froze, then hit the button for it to come back down & it began binding & making an awful sound so I jumped out of the car & ran in & pulled the emergency cord to release the tension. That’s when I realized what I had done, the monumental act of stupidity that I had accomplished
. As I stood there looking at what appeared to be a completely bent garage door and/or set of tracks I thought to myself, yea, I’ll just swap in some new shocks, save $150 on labor, mmm hmm, yup, I’m a mechanic now, I got this – now I’m $3,000 for a new garage door & I STILL haven’t gotten the old shocks out.
As I studied the door situation I saw that the cord that pulls the left side up was out of its spool & all bunched up like a tangled pile of extension cord. This thing:
Hoping that was the only problem I popped the cotter pin, disconnected it from the bottom of the door, untangled it then rewound the spool, reconnected it to the door & slid the cotter pin back in & boom, straight as an arrow. I felt as though I could add that repair to the overall success of the shock job, I needed the encouragement.
Back to the shock job.
It took me 3 days & about 7 wheels to cut those miserable fucking nuts off & even after I got them off there was still enough of the bolt in there that I had to pound away with a punch & drill to break through. What a pain in the ass, I broke about 7 drill bits getting it all out of there. Had to pick up some grinding wheels as well to smooth things out. I can’t tell you how many trips to Home Depot I made (& Lowes to get new grade 8 hardware), because I don’t want to count.
Installation of the new shocks (I painted them black as well) was relatively uneventful, but the PTSD suffered during this process may be with me for a while.
I began the job last Sunday & finished yesterday, 8 days. EIGHT DAYS! Of course it was an hour here, a few hours there, but still…
I had that feeling “WTF am I doing… this is so not worth it… why?”, but then I looked at my rig parked up at the end of the driveway after the test drive & remembered:
I can't wait to hit the trails this Saturday :aplastao::ARMS1:
