Replacement Shocks

As I continue my rebuild, I am going to replace my suspension and steering shocks. I am guessing that my shocks were part of a lift kit, but I’m not sure how much useful information I have about the kit. Here’s what I know:
Rear springs marked 781370
Front springs marked 781369
Front and rear shackles are gold and measure 4.75” center of bolt to center of bolt and 6.75” end to end
Front shocks say made in USA, C04086K 650639 and C04292K 650329
Front shocks are 15” eye to eye fully compressed, 22.75” fully extended
Rear shocks both say made in USA, C044256 650322
Rear shocks are 14 and 15” fully compressed and 21.75” fulled extended
Steering shock says made in USA, C04351K 81288-ORP
Steering shock is 12” fully compressed from the bottom of the Stu’s to bottom of the stud and 20.25” fully extended.

I also have measurement of the attachment points on the jeep unloaded and loaded.

Am I on the right track gathering information about what shocks to use as replacements?

Thanks for any direction you have.

 

https://www.gorancho.com/downloads/product-catalog/Specifications.pdf
If you know your extended length and your compressed length of you suspension, look at this chart as a starter and you should be able to figure the shock needed.

 

Just enter those part numbers into ebay, google or Amazon. You'll see any equivalents offered.

 

Shocks definitely look to be Rancho

 

I contacted rancho and they said they did not have an interchange for those part numbers. When I searched for the PNs, I found a few similar appearing products like the Rough Country “Heavy Duty Stabilizer.” Just wanted to make sure I was on the right track or needed to get more information. I will keep digging. Thanks.

 

To be certain you get the proper shocks with anything that isn't stock, you need to measure what length you have at full stuff against the bump stop and at full droop. Not difficult to do if you have a decent floor jack. I wouldn't be depending on your old numbers for this but those could be useful if they turn out to have the proper travel. That said, I'm not in any way a Rough Country fan. Rancho builds quality stuff.

 

I was planning to replace with Rancho. Here's what I measured for the distance between center of mounting bolts:

Front driver
Resting 21.5, frame lifted 22.5, bump stop to axle 8.25

Front passenger
21.5, 21.75, 8

Rear driver
20, 20.5, 9.75

Rear passenger
19.5, 19.75, 9.25

My jeep is a roller, so there isn't much weight to load the springs. I'm assuming that is why my resting to lifted difference is very small. Is it normal to have driver to passenger side variation like that? Bonus question is does any of this tell me how much lift I have, or is that something I need to figure out by measuring the body assembled compared to an unlifted jeep?

 

Bilstein or Fox. Get your final measurement down with what lift you are using. These shocks can be mounted shaft down so there are no clearance issues
with the tie rod and all. Their catalogues list the extended and collapsed length and end connections. Thank me later if you use Rauncho.

 

If I interpret that right correctly, you have about 14" travel on the front axle and 11" on the rear. While that is really decent travel, both of those compressed lengths are going to be too short to utilize that travel. To make use of that potential travel, you will need to extend the upper shock mounts. There should be a lot of threads on here how people have done that-and probably no two of them are going to be the same.

 

As Duffer said. Longer mounts...easy on the front and not so easy on the back without cutting in to the tub. Others have mentioned extended bump
stops to limit the upward travel and keep your shocks from bottoming.

 

I wouldn't worry about the shocks until you have the jeep put back together with all weight on suspension.

 

While the Rancho RS9000XL's are nice and I do like the idea of an adjustable shock, from what I can determine they must be run with the
body of the shock down. This would be fine if the front shocks were relocated to the rear of the front axle.