LippCJ7
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2010
- Messages
- 5,431
So anyone tried to change shocks on a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500? Let me tell you its no fun!
The front is the issue, or so I thought, anyway I get my daughters truck into the garage I figure 4 hours tops, get it in the air and the front tower removed which leaves the bottom, piece of cake I can get an impact on the front and the rear nut should be lashed, until the lashing breaks...
I used penetrating oil, I heated it up I tried every trick I knew of, I somehow got an open ended wrench in there, no luck, nothing will break loose, so I say to heck with it, get to work on the driver side, no problems goes exactly as planned. Go back over to the passenger side thinking maybe it needed time for the penetrating oil to penetrate, nope.
So I get on the back shocks, I needed my 1/2" drive breaker bar and a 2' pipe added to the breaker to get the bolts to break loose WITH penetrating oil on the first shock, and I am out of time, I have to go to work.
Two weeks later I have the truck in the air and I am back after the passenger side shock, went through the same ideas and no luck, go to the passenger side rear shock and it takes 5 minutes to replace, I am not happy, I **** and moan trying to come up with a way to get this danged bolt off and suddenly my daughter tells me the only other idea she has heard is welding the bolt to the mount and it dawns on me, for the love of god I have four welders in storage, I have a dryer outlet in the garage BLAMO, we head to the storage unit get my faithful Lincoln stick welder and run to Home Depot for a new plug to convert the welder. Takes me five minutes to convert the welder 30 seconds to weld the nut and in ten minutes I am completely done with the truck.
I did have to replace 3 bolts due to corrosion but in the end its done and now I know whats involved when I replace the shocks on my 2006 Ram 3500, I need two weekends...I think I may be slacking, my daughter kept telling me I couldn't shoot it either LOL!!
The front is the issue, or so I thought, anyway I get my daughters truck into the garage I figure 4 hours tops, get it in the air and the front tower removed which leaves the bottom, piece of cake I can get an impact on the front and the rear nut should be lashed, until the lashing breaks...
I used penetrating oil, I heated it up I tried every trick I knew of, I somehow got an open ended wrench in there, no luck, nothing will break loose, so I say to heck with it, get to work on the driver side, no problems goes exactly as planned. Go back over to the passenger side thinking maybe it needed time for the penetrating oil to penetrate, nope.
So I get on the back shocks, I needed my 1/2" drive breaker bar and a 2' pipe added to the breaker to get the bolts to break loose WITH penetrating oil on the first shock, and I am out of time, I have to go to work.
Two weeks later I have the truck in the air and I am back after the passenger side shock, went through the same ideas and no luck, go to the passenger side rear shock and it takes 5 minutes to replace, I am not happy, I **** and moan trying to come up with a way to get this danged bolt off and suddenly my daughter tells me the only other idea she has heard is welding the bolt to the mount and it dawns on me, for the love of god I have four welders in storage, I have a dryer outlet in the garage BLAMO, we head to the storage unit get my faithful Lincoln stick welder and run to Home Depot for a new plug to convert the welder. Takes me five minutes to convert the welder 30 seconds to weld the nut and in ten minutes I am completely done with the truck.
I did have to replace 3 bolts due to corrosion but in the end its done and now I know whats involved when I replace the shocks on my 2006 Ram 3500, I need two weekends...I think I may be slacking, my daughter kept telling me I couldn't shoot it either LOL!!
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