swapping out my rear shocks this week and there was no sleeve that came off with the upper mounting location, it appears to be rusted on the shock mount stud. Anyway, i just need to confirm that this should have come off with the shock, because they wouldnt budge and the inner washer was a bit flimsy.

ive been letting it soak overnight with liquid wrench sprayed on it, but they still wont move via grabbing with vice grips and trying to twist it off.

anyway, before i take the torch to the sleeves that i think are rusted on i figured id make sure and tackle it tomorrow...

Failing that, I'll just cut the bastards off and weld some new bolts on there.
thanks

Yeah, the sleeve probably should have come off. Note that these is a step on there to keep from over tightening the bolt. Make sure that's not what you're seeing.



IIRC the sleeve should fit over that step. The sleeve is important so the load the shocks takes is spread out over all the rubber bushing, not just one side.

Also a pipe wrench may be better in it's removal than vise grips.

J.D.

nope, its the step is what im seeing. there just werent any sleeves on these rear upper shocks. I had some better shocks laying around and just decided to see if they would work, the fronts went on fine, but the step on the rear upper is my block.

this morning i pressed the sleeve out of the "new" shocks to see if they would fit on the upper mount, but no dice. ill have to actually buy some shocks for the rear

Generally all the shock sleeves are the same diameter. So maybe I am wrong. Just seems to me that without it, you're only pushing and pulling on the bushing in two spots, whereas the sleeve would spread out those loads. And not wear out your bushings since the sleeve would take the rotation as the suspension travels.

So, don't go buy new shocks just yet. I went to inboard shocks a long time ago so I don't recall for sure what you're supposed to do in your situation.

Just smooth out any marks you may have made on the stock mount.

J.D.

well, im pretty sure now that its not a sleeve, but im like you, i thought they were all pretty universal. but this shoulder is well over the inside diameter of the shock sleeve in this shock.

at any rate, i just went out and snapped a couple pics.

Ouch, yeah, that won't come off. But it looks like it's seen better days too. Maybe time to replace the mounts, or you could try and smooth up the marks and throw your shocks on.

J.D.

No sleeves on the upper mounts. It's just the bushing. The lower mount with the bolt is sleeved.

The metal sleeves inside the bushing are there to prevent overtightening when in a mount such as the axle side. With the upper shock mount design there is no need as the shoulder takes care of you ability to overtighten.

Oh, and for reference there are different size metal sleeves for the bushings. Not important in this case.

so im on the right track pressing the sleeves out of the "new" shock bushing.... that makes me feel better.