Bear with me as this is my first shock installation. I jacked up the front left, removed the tire and front left shock. Installed the new Bilstein shock F4-BE5-6081-HO - this should be correct for 2003 Dmax 2WD. Got the bottom torqued down. I start tightening down the top nut and got it down to where the top bushing is bulging a little but the lower bushing below the frame is loose - why? I notice on the old shocks there was some type of spacer between the upper and lower bushing am I supposed to reuse this?? Totally lost now and I thought this was going to be easy - Thanks for any help you all can provide.

I don't think you can reuse that bushing if you wanted - it won't fit on the Bilsteins, iirc. I think you just need to tighten the upper bolt some more, so that both bushings are bulging, and I don't think the bottom will be loose anymore.

You know what, I was hoping I could've deleted my post before someone read it and discovered how stupid I am.... anyway I replaced the tire , lowered the jack and now am about to tighten down the top nut. Problem solved......ok - I'm going away now ...thanks Joe E

Did the same thing when I first installed them. Later in the week I backed off on the top nut a little. I think I had them squeezed too tight.

Ducker,


Not to worry, it's guys like you that keep guys like us from making similar mistakes. It's all how you look at it. Think of yourself as a frontrunner http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif

I got them on and rotated the tires while I was at it. Looking forward to the drive to work tomorrow. As always, thanks to all who post info on this site, kinda gives me courage to tackle things I might otherwise not do.