Forum Discussion

myredracer's avatar
myredracer
Explorer II
Jan 20, 2015

Shock bushing damage

We had Monroe shock absorbers installed on our KZ Spree TT before we took possession of it back in April last year. Being a new unit, the dealer said they would need to take care of it for warranty reasons. They sent it to a frame/suspension/axle shop down the street. Turned out the shop shop our dealer sent it to has been nothing but trouble. We've been back to them 3 times now and it's still not right.

I gave the suspension shop 2 sets of different length shocks depending on where they mounted the upper bracket, and all necessary brackets, bolts, etc. along with 8 bushings for the ends of the shocks. I also gave the shop a detailed installation drawing and it's like they threw it away and got a kid to do the work.

One thing the suspension shop did was install the wrong length shocks even after going back there a 2nd time to get it fixed. I ended up removing them and changing them myself last summer when we only had about 200 miles on the TT. When I removed the shocks, I discovered all 8 metal bushings/sleeves were mangled as shown in the photos.

My question is, did this happen because the shop had the mounting bolts/nuts too tight or is it because they pounded the bushings into the rubber in the shock ends? When we had our TT back to the suspension shop again last month, they refused to take responsibility for the bushings and they said that this is common. The bushings/sleeves are NLA and it took me a while to find 8 new ones from 4 different sources. I'm going to replace the bushings myself (and the other things that are still wrong) and don't want this happening again.

I've posted this in this forum because it could also apply to a FW or TH.

  • Johnny_G1's avatar
    Johnny_G1
    Explorer
    Jan 20, 2015
    Should be pressed in, preferably mount the bushing on a bolt first then press, no need to hammer them in, a little lube will help also.
  • Trackrig's avatar
    Trackrig
    Explorer II
    Jan 20, 2015
    My first impression is the shocks are too long? That when hitting a large bump, they fully compress and when they can't compress any further, they're damaging the bushings. If the shocks weren't bottoming out, I'm not sure what else would cause the bushing damage as long as they weren't miss-aligned during the installation.

    Bill
  • riggsp's avatar
    riggsp
    Explorer
    Jan 20, 2015
    Looks like the shocks are too long and are running out of travel when they compress.
  • azrving's avatar
    azrving
    Explorer
    Jan 20, 2015
    Looks like the back side of the stud/bolt didn't have a flat washer like backer for the inside to butt up against. Look at your mount and you may see that it has nothing flat to bottom out against. It's probably an irregular shape and the bushing gets deformed as it's tightened down.
  • myredracer's avatar
    myredracer
    Explorer II
    Jan 21, 2015
    I just re-checked the static length of the shocks as the TT is sitting outside. With the wrong shocks they installed, there was only 1.25" before the shocks bottomed out in the fully compressed position which could account for part of the damage. When I took the shocks off, there was also one upper bolt that was loose and had about 1/4" end play in it. If the shocks were bottoming, I can see that causing the bolt to work loose.

    Maybe overtightening the bolts as well as the wrong shocks led to the bushing damage. Sure glad it wasn't like that for thousands of miles.
  • ScottG's avatar
    ScottG
    Nomad
    Jan 21, 2015
    I'm sorry to say, those shocks are either too long or too short and replacing the bushings is just a temporary fix.
  • myredracer's avatar
    myredracer
    Explorer II
    Jan 21, 2015
    That was on the shocks they originally installed. The ones in there now are pretty close to the mid-point of the travel with 2 1/2" of travel either way. What I don't know is what amount of travel the shocks get in normal road towing conditions, but the shocks are at an angle so travel less than the actual vertical movement. It might be an interesting exercise to measure how much the shocks actually move in either direction. The shock upper and lower mounting brackets are located exactly as per Monroe's mounting instructions.

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