well i ordered a set of hotchkis/bilstein shocks for the 00 Lightning today from lfp. first off let me just say their customer service is #1 and the prices can not be beat. i had planned on ordering a set of qa1s from ruslow but the wife took a pay cut at her job so 700 for shocks was not in my budget for now. so i went with a good low cost shock. i figure since i have hotchkis leaf springs for the rear and the hotchkis shocks are made for the tvs it would be a good choice. also the gas charged shocks should hold up well until i can afford to go with some qa1s. should have them in around the middle of next week. post my results next week. they should be a big improvement over my stock 00 ford shocks.

 

Yeah, the shocks are the easiest thing to correct. Too bad they
aren't easier to install < grin > The rears are a REAL PITA ...

I am available for consult for a beer.

 

buddy for your help i will make sure you have atleast six. hope you feel better buddy, let me know if you need anything.

 

For the rear install, I found that it's worth the effort to loosen the bed bolts and shim up the bed a tad. Gives your hands more room to work.

I have QA1s with heims back there now. They are easy as pie to r/r. So I'm thinking of converting the Bilsteins to upper rod ends.

 

cool tim thanks. i was wondering how hard it would be to install the helmjoints on the bilsteins last night.

 

I haven't taken the QA1s off to measure, but I think that they are SAE threaded. I'm 99% sure that the OEM Bilsteins are metric, so it looks like I will be ordering custom rod ends for them (from ironically, QA1).

With the back lowered, I'm not at all comfortable with having a stud mount when the shocks are so far misaligned.

 

i just installed my qa1s last week and noticed that my shock extenders correct most of that misalignment. my ride is much improved from the roush bilsteins (set at 8/6 f/r).

 

makes me wonder if my hotchkis/bilsteins are the same as the stock bilsteins. i assume they are. do shock extenders help the angle of the shock? i know they help range of motion. keep me posted on this man. love to change mine over if it all works out.

 

sorry missed the post about the extenders. ha ha