New Owner general shock question

Hello. I just purchased a 2010 Raptor this weekend with 25k on it and just love it. I do have a question/concern though. I had the Ford dealer put it up on a lift and I noticed that the body of 2 shocks (1 rear 1 front) are slightly corroded from, I assume salt. I was thinking about pulling them off this coming weekend to inspect them more closely and clean them up. Is this easy to do and anything I should know before doing this? And if the bodies have corrosion on them should I start looking for another set? Maybe have a second set and send them out to get rebuilt so they are ready to swap in. I’m not expecting to do any serious off-roading here in southern NJ, mostly flat sandy trails around here and this is going to be more a daily driver than off roader. Thanks in advance! ..and sorry if this has been asked before, I'm new...

welcome to the forum.. Im sure there are other threads that address this but i know the pain of searching and not finding anything...it's always a good idea to at least try that.

I changed my shocks out this weekend and while I am very mechanically minded, I had no experience with anything like this in the past. on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the hardest i would rank this (assuming you have the correct tools) at a 3. I had the first shock out in about 20minutes.

I watched several videos and read and re-read the manual several times.

its very straight forward. raise and secure the vehicle, tire comes off, tie rod disconnects at the knuckle, upper control arm disconnects at the knuckle, three bolts on the top of the shock (do not loosen the center bolt), one large bolt on the bottom that connects the shock to the lower control arm and pull the shock out.

some things to keep in mind. the lower bolt has to be torqued to 450ftlbs. I had to step on the lower control arm and flex it down to clear the bottom of the shock over the lip of the arm.

there are many people on here far more experienced then me and hopefully they will chime in and fill in the blanks...

good luck.

Corrosion is normal, I am also from NJ and my shocks are corroded in the same place, it the salt from the roads. If you decide to take them off here are some other important torque numbers http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f39/torque-specs-11451/

The rear passenger shock is the one that has me concerned as it’s the worst of the 4. The front ones aren't too bad....maybe I’ll leave them alone for now and concentrate on the rears. There is also a little surface rust above the rear wheels that needs attention before it becomes an issue. I picked this up out on Long Island and I’d guess it spent some time out on the beach and the sand / salt are the cause for both issues.

After you get that rust off, it is a good idea to have the wheel wells linexed or at least a good undercoating sprayed under there.

DCSVT1 said:

The rear passenger shock is the one that has me concerned as it’s the worst of the 4. The front ones aren't too bad....maybe I’ll leave them alone for now and concentrate on the rears. There is also a little surface rust above the rear wheels that needs attention before it becomes an issue. I picked this up out on Long Island and I’d guess it spent some time out on the beach and the sand / salt are the cause for both issues.

Click to expand...

the rears are much easier to take off. FWIW

marcj33 said:

the rears are much easier to take off. FWIW

Click to expand...

How about getting back on? I just read a thread where the OP took his off to paint and to reinstall he unbolted the rear from the springs. I know they will compress when unbolted but that seems a bit drastic. I guess I’ll have to do some reading before I jump in to fix something. This is a different animal than my last F150.

I have not had to drop the springs to reinstall the shocks. We had them off just last week to do some welding.

I jacked the truck up under the rear differential. I set it down on jacks stands under the two rear tow ring rings. And then I let the suspension droop.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner