View Single Post
  #1  
Unread 02-18-2012, 10:24 PM
Smithers's Avatar
Smithers Smithers is offline
Admin
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Posts: 3,238
Send a message via AIM to Smithers Send a message via Skype™ to Smithers
Default Installing Shocks Front and Rear on this Dodge RAM 2500

I had scored some free shocks the other week so I thought I should try and install them on the back of my Dodge. The truck made all sorts of noise from the suspension no matter how slow I drove the thing. I knew the shocks were completely blown out but I though it would cost a lot to fix so I procrastinated. So I took the part number for the shocks to Napa to get the specs on how long the extended length was and how short the compressed length was. They told me that they wouldn't work on my truck but I insisted they print out the measurements so I could list them for sale online. They gave me the measurements finally and what do you know? The only difference between rear shocks on a 1995 Dodge and the same era GMC/Chevy is only .5" in compression stroke. I put them under the back of my truck and they work just prefect. :-P

To sum it up here real quick installing shocks on these Dodge trucks is super easy and even easier on the 2WD like mine. Putting a whole set on a mid-90's Dodge 2500 took me about 1.5 hours combined and that's with some welding repair on the front because of how worn the mounting locations were on each side. This is easy stuff folks. Here are some pictures and descriptions of what I did.

This pictures shows you exactly why you want to replace your shocks every now and then if you drive a lot. They just don't last forever but the good news is that they are cheap. To replace any of the shocks on this truck was only $50. I scored a pair of Napa 60 shocks that happened to fit on the back and for the front I just went down to Carquest and picked up a pair of KYB shocks for around $90 for the pair. There are lots of brands of shocks out there but I knew ANYTHING would be better than what I had so I just wanted to slap some on there for now. I would really like to lift the front a little bit so I didn't want to spend too much money on something that would just be changed out in the near future. Here you can see that these front shocks don't look too junky but when you take them off and compress them you can see that they don't have any gas left in them and they just aren't functioning correctly.


Last edited by Smithers; 02-18-2012 at 10:46 PM.
Reply With Quote