Was this shock damaged?

[GoinThisAway]

I had a local shop replace the OEM shocks on my truck with Bilstein 4600s a couple months ago. On my last trip I hit a large pothole on the left side and heard a clatter towards the front of the truck. After that when I hit a sizable bump on that side I could hear a small rattle in the left front area. Upon investigation, it was found that the shop had failed to install a washer on the left front shock, the one under the lower bushing, and the nut there had been pushed up through the bushings. Luckily the shock rod didn’t push up through anything, it was just rattling a bit. And with the camper on the truck its handling wasn’t noticeably affected. So I was able to continue on to my destination … our annual family campout. At the campground, my DB was able to effect a repair after another relative provided a suitable washer and a fellow camper provided a 15 mm socket. (The DB was right. I’d barely finished putting my “NEED 15 mm SOCKET” sign up at the front of my campsite when the first person to come by said “I have one”.) Now a question for you. The bushings didn’t appear to be damaged when the nut was pushed up through them but could anything else in the shock have been damaged? I’ll be having a discussion with the manager at the shop that botched the job and want to know if I should have them replace the shock, at their cost of course.

[SidecarFlip]

If it's not leaking from the seal and the rod isn't bent, it's good. Easy to check the rod with a steel straight edge.

[kohldad]

The pic was taken after we had taken off the top parts and found the exact cause of the failure. The shock was properly installed at the campground except we forgot to put the boot back on the sleeve before we installed everything else. And we weren't about to redo all of the work just for the boot. DS is worried that the shock or shaft could have been damaged. I checked it and there wasn't any noticeable wear or scratches. The bottom bushing also didn't show any tears or damage from the sleeve bushing up through it.

[Reddog1]

This may be of some help:

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrT6Voram1Z2HIA3P4PxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByZDNzZTI1BGNvbG8...

[Reddog1]

If you know someone mechanical, they might be able to look at the good side and compare to the bad side. Many manufactures provide install instructions online. That would be worth looking at for an exploded view of the parts.

[ScottG]

Yes, they left the large washer off that stops at the sholder on the shock shaft. From your pic, it looks like they left a few other parts off too.
It's probably not damaged, just needs the rest of the parts installed.

[kohldad]

From bottom to top, you have the rod with dimples, a catch sleeve which holds the boot, a washer which sits a sleeve (the missing part), lower bushing, the hat (part bolted to the truck), upper bushing, nut.

It was the catch sleeve which eventually pushed through the lower bushing. The shock then was loose in the hat which rattled every time she hit a bump.

At least we were able to get it fixed enough so it didn't rattle and functioned on the way home.

[GoinThisAway]

Here you go, Reddog. I took this photo of the top of the shock. I might should add that it was the lower bushing on the upper part of the shock that was missing the washer. Kohldad will probably chime in and explain it better.

[Reddog1]

Personally, I would find it hard to answer the question without photos.

Wayne