New guy here (hi) and I'm leaning on y'all for advice.

Ordered a set of front/rear Bilsteins from truckshocks.com (highly recommended) for my 2004 2WD Ranger Edge.

Rear shock nuts/bolts were heavily rusted, but lots of Liquid Wrench and sweat finally got them off. New shocks had compression straps but needed to be about 2-3" shorter. Needed both hands to compress the shocks, leaving no hands left to slip in the bottom mounting bolt. Since the rear was up on jack stands, I used the Ranger's little hydraulic shock to compress the shockss until they lined up with the bottom mounts, then slipped the bolts in. At least it worked.

Top rubber bushings has a too small inside diameter to fit over the sleeved section of the top mount studs. Used a sharp utility knife with a long skinny blade to shave it out little by little, until it would slip on nice and snug.

All in all, about 4 hours just to change the rear shocks -- not what I expected.

Then I put the front up on jack stands, remove the wheels, and start to work. Bottom nuts were able to be loosened so it looked like this would be a lot easier.

But the top nuts on the shock studs are solidly rusted in place. Holding the shock body in a set of channelocks to keep them from rotating did not work. An hour of struggle was to no avail.

I called the repair shop down the street and they wanted $145 to put them on for me, so I decided, screw this, there's gotta be a way.

Would it be nuts to beg/borrow/buy a Sawzall and just slice right through the top rubber donuts and shock studs?

By the way, great forum you have here.

 

Cut it,the stud at the top is part of the old shock

if i remmber right the stud tip of the shock is shaped to put a small wrench on then use a another wrench to remove the nut.

 

^Mine were like that but it's not much to grab onto... if your shocks are finished (I assume they are if you're changing them!) just cut below the nut on top and you'll be good to go!

 

Hammer and cold chisel , split the nut .
It helps if you have a Dremel to cut a notch it it first.

 

this x2....I just changed out the stock ranchos on my truck for bilstiens. I ended up using vice grips to lock onto the tip of the old shock and keep it from spinning. But if it was that badly rusted I would have just cut it.

 

I've changed shocks several times on Rangers and the fronts were always the same - top nut rusted onto the top stud of the shock. I grab onto the top of the shock rod with vise grip pliers to keep it from rotating and keep cranking on the nut on the stud until the stud breaks off. Then I take it loose on the bottom and take them out.

 

Can anyone tell me whos got the right nut and bolts for lower rear
shocks on my ranger or what size they need to be?

 

Any hardware store. Measure the size of the hole and the width and then get grade 8 bolts that are the right size.