Bent shocks (1 Viewer)

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I have a 95fzj80. Front and rear bumpers, sliders, roof rack and drawers. Ive had the slinky stage 1, 75mm heavy lift for about 3 years. I ordered from red line. I wheel moderate trails. But the truck has never been air borne.
I've somehow managed to bend all four shafts on my icon shocks! I'm trying to figure out how i bent them. The only thing I can think of is maybe I got the wrong bump stops? I really don't know how else they could have all four got bent. Do you have a measurement for the correct bump stops for the 75mm heavy kit?
What else could I check? How else could these shocks get bent?
My local cruiser mechanic talked to Darren briefly, but the only suggestion i got was to spend almost $3k on the 2.5 reservoir shocks. I see no reason the 2.0s wouldn't be a suitable shock for my setup. But im not replacing anything until I can figure out what happened to begin with.
@AutoCraft Aus
 
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I have a 95fzj80. Front and rear bumpers, sliders, roof rack and drawers. Ive had the slinky stage 1, 75mm heavy lift for about 3 years. I ordered from red line. I wheel moderate trails. But the truck has never been air borne.
I've somehow managed to bend all four shafts on my icon shocks! I'm trying to figure out how i bent them. The only thing I can think of is maybe I got the wrong bump stops? I really don't know how else they could have all four got bent. Do you have a measurement for the correct bump stops for the 75mm heavy kit?
What else could I check? How else could these shocks get bent?
My local cruiser mechanic talked to Darren briefly, but the only suggestion i got was to spend almost $3k on the 2.5 reservoir shocks. I see no reason the 2.0s wouldn't be a suitable shock for my setup. But im not replacing anything until I can figure out what happened to begin with.
@AutoCraft Aus
Maybe I can help with a few more details? Do you have any coil spacers, relocated shocks mounts? What bumpstops do you have and how tall are they? Do you still have the stock inside the the coil bump towers? Tire size? Also can you get any measurements off the shocks for compressed and extended lengths? Any pics of the bent shocks?

My first suspicion is that maybe you somehow were sent shocks meant for a different application that are not the correct length? But won't be able to tell that without the other details.
 
No coil spacers, no relocated shock mounts.
Stock coil bumps still in place. 255/85/16 tires.
I'm using the bumps supplied with the slinky kit.
I will try and get measurements of the shocks tomorrow. What would the best way to do that? If I lift one tire all the way up with a fork lift will the other side be fully drooped? And the lifted side fully compressed? Ill put a straight edge on the shafts and take a pic too.
Thanks for looking into this for me. If it's user error I'll totally own up to it, just trying to figure out what happened.

20200130_164343.jpg
 
I lifted a corner of the truck with a forklift, but I was nervous and think I didn't get high enough. I had almost an inch before the rear bump would contact. Rear tire was 32" off the ground.
Rear shocks :extended 28 1/2" from bottom of top shock mount to center of bottom mounting bolt. 18 1/2" compressed
Front 27" extended. I couldn't get the fronts compressed on the truck. I can pull them and take measurements if needed.

20200131_135431.jpg
 
The shocks should be
Front AC56511 16.85"/28.17"
Rear AC56512 16.85"/27.42"

If you get a chance pull one off the front and one off the rear to check. The extended length you provided looks about right but if your compressed length is accurate then your's look to be 2.5" too long.

Can you get pics of the shocks where they are bent?
 
As far as the bent shafts go, the mechanic put a straight edge on the shafts and you could see a light gap. I put a cheap square on them and can see light but it's consistent along the shaft. I can't see a drastic bend.
 
At what point on the shaft does the bend occur?
I'm trying to figure that out. I took it to the mechanic to diagnose a death wobble. He couldn't find anything super obvious causing it. I thought it might be leaking shocks, the bodies are covered in oil. The mechanic put a straight edge on each shaft and you could see a light gap on each one. He told me they were bent.
I took 2 shocks off this weekend to measure compressed lengths. I put a cheap square on the shafts. You could see a light gap but it was consistent along the shaft. I don't really know if they are bent. I have a better straight edge i can stick on and see.
 
Did the shocks compress without binding?

How is the condition of your panhard bar and the bushings? Are the mounting bolts loose?

You might get more responses in the 80 series forum.
 
They did seem to compress with out binding.
The death wobble has been "solved", as in it doesn't do it any more. Nothing was done besides putting it on the lift. But lifting it and letting the suspension droop solved the death wobble. I had recently installed delta vs arms and new oem bushings all around.
 
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