Sky's Front Superduty RSK on a 2wd

[Gary Lewis]

VWThomason wrote

Gary,
I'd definitely have to make new links or buy some longer ones for sure. I think I'm going to just pull it off for now and see how it is.

Yup, know the feeling well.  I think I'll wind up making longer links, but it wasn't intuitively obvious to the casual observer exactly where the upper brackets ought to go until the weight was on the suspension, and by then I'd lost interest in getting them on.  So that's a step after I get the truck on the road.

[VWThomason]

Gary,

I am trying to mount my upper shock brackets, could you measure from eye to eye on the front shocks of big blue with the weight on it and without? Maybe a picture or two?

It would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Gary Lewis]

Certainly.  You are just looking for travel, right?

I'm using the 10" Bilsteins.  What are you using?

And, what shock mounts do you have?  I went with the ones that came with the D60, and they are much longer.

[VWThomason]

Gary Lewis wrote

Certainly.  You are just looking for travel, right?

I'm using the 10" Bilsteins.  What are you using?

And, what shock mounts do you have?  I went with the ones that came with the D60, and they are much longer.

Pretty much. And to make sure I'm not mounting them to high or low, since the holes aren't there for the mounts since this was a 2wd truck.

For now I'm just going with cheap/ish gabriel shocks off of rockauto. I plan to upgrade to bilsteins or fox shocks later down the road.

I've actually got a dual shock mount kit from a parts truck that I parted out 6 or 7 years ago. I'm not too sure I'm going to like it, but since I went with the light U code spring it may be alright.

[Gary Lewis]

Lets see if this helps.  But if you need more measurements or pics just ask.

The "down" measurement between the upper and lower shock mounting bolts is 21 1/4", and the "up" measurement is 24 1/4".

Here's with the shock in the "up" position:




And here's a measurement from the lower front bolt hole to the rear steering box bolt: 7".  Note that the front holes are the factory holes, and I drilled new holes for the rear bolts on the 4-bolt bracket.

[VWThomason]

Gary Lewis wrote

Lets see if this helps.  But if you need more measurements or pics just ask.

The "down" measurement between the upper and lower shock mounting bolts is 21 1/4", and the "up" measurement is 24 1/4".

Here's with the shock in the "up" position:




And here's a measurement from the lower front bolt hole to the rear steering box bolt: 7".  Note that the front holes are the factory holes, and I drilled new holes for the rear bolts on the 4-bolt bracket.

Much appreciated, I believe that will get me to where I need to be. I will try and put those measurements to use tonight!

[Gary Lewis]

If there's something else that would help, just ask.  I'm 20' from the truck and just scanning new docs, so it is easy.

[salans7]

Gary, do you think you could take a picture with the old shock mount approximately where it was when mounted on the truck? I want to see the difference between the upper shock bolts and where they're located between the two different style mounts. In other words, just put the old shock mount in front of the new mount (no need to remove the shock) and just do your best to line the holes up by sight.

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, I can do that tomorrow.  Easy peasy as I have the old ones laying right there.

[Gary Lewis]

Let's see if these pics do it, Shaun.  But, parallax is a pain so I measured them: 12" for the '85 towers and 14 1/2" for the '95 towers.

[salans7]

Not quite what I was looking for, but it would probably be too hard with the shock in the way. No worries, I'm only trying to verify a theory that the upper shock mount is in different places (fore vs aft) between the two bolt and four bolt towers.

Here's my rough drawing of what I'm referring to. If the shock (blue line) on the two bolt towers is in line with the two bolt holes, and the shock (red line) on the four bolt towers is in the center of the four bolts, then mounting a four bolt tower to the two bolt tower's holes would slightly change the location of the upper shock bushing as shown below. If I'm correct, that means it apparently doesn't really matter where the bracket is bolted provided it is within the tolerances of the sleeve in the upper shock bushing.

[Gary Lewis]

I think your assumption that it doesn't really matter as long as you are within the tolerance is accurate.

But remember that the way I located my shock towers was to bolt the tower in using the original 2-bolt holes, snug the shock's lower bolt up to align it, and swivel it up into place while the truck was sitting on the ground.  And it turned out that the shock tower was in the perfect spot.

[salans7]

That's my thinking as well. There's definitely a difference there, but it's minimal, and not enough to affect the shock's final placement.

[VWThomason]

Well, unfortunately the upper shock mounts I have are not going to work. I'm going to assume TTB shock mounts and dana 60 shock mounts are different and I did not know that. The shock mounts are dual shock mounts I have are off of a TTB truck i parted out several years ago . I could lower the mounting location to make it work though I suppose, but idk what I want to do now. I knew I should have pulled the stock shock mounts off the parts truck.

[salans7]

There's a few sets of the four-bolt versions on Ebay right now....

F350 4-bolt Shock Towers

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, the D60 mounts I have are 4-bolt and 2 1/2" longer than the TTB upper mounts.

[VWThomason]

I measured the ones on Clifford because I didn't change its shock mounts when I swapped in the Dana 60 and they measure out the same measurements you've given me. So I'm curious if this dual shock mount is shorter to run the stock shocks on a lifted truck or what exactly. Another odd ball thing they are also 3 hole and not 2 or 4. 2 upper holes and 1 lower centered between the upper holes. I'm gonna sleep on it and think about it, I'm still not sure what I want to do.

[Gary Lewis]

Interesting.  Haven't seen a quad shock setup on a D60.  Assume you have a different lower mount as well.

[salans7]

Like this?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XCWN5FW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_03.XEbFTGRG56

[Gary Lewis]

How do the shocks attach at the bottom end?