I have had the Rancho lift for about 2.5 years now. I noticed awhile back that everytime I hit a bump in the road that I got a rattle under the passenger side and eventually got the noise under the driver side also. I had the RS9000s put in with the lift. Here is what the problem is. The lower mounts on the front have a ton of play in them and are causing the noise. I took the front shocks off the truck and drove it and no noises. The sleeve that goes through the lower mount looks like it is threaded or was threaded. The bolt that goes through there is threaded all the way and is stripped. I don't know if this is a faulty design or if the wrong bolt was installed.

Is the sleeve in the lower shock mount on the front suppose to be threaded and allow the long threaded bolt to thread into it and then thread into the welded nut on the lower arm. The bolt now is almost shaved in two from the rattling. If this is the correct design it seems crappy to me. I need to know if 4wheel parts installed this wrong or what is going on. I called 4wheel parts about warranty on the shocks and they said they didn't warranty the bushing and sleeve. I basically told them to screw off since they were rude. I guess I will move on to Rancho and see if they will replace them since they are under warranty.

Basically here is what I need to know. Is the inside of this sleeve suppose to be threaded or not. Is the bolt suppose to be threaded all the way and thread into this sleeve. Something just doesn't seem right. If it is correct anyone else had this problem.

This on a 98 5.4 ORP.

 

Ok, let me give you what I know. I just put this same kit on my 02 f-150 but with rsx rancho shocks. (self installed) The steel sleeves that came with the shocks were too small of a diamater fot the bolts to fit thru them, so I simply did not use them. The sleeve is not supposed to be threaded, the stock bolts should go thru the shocks rubber bushing with the sleeve if the bolt fits thru it and then have a nut on the opposite end. Its sounding to me like they used a smaller dia. bolt on yours and the nut has come off OR im way outta line and the setup on your 98 is totally diffrent. Hope this helps.
Gordon

 

Yes, it helps. You confirmed what I had expected. How lazy can people get. You pay to have it done right and they do it wrong.

So did you use the stock sleeve out of the stock shocks and the stock bolts.

Thanks

 

My stock shocks had no steel sleeves in them.
The stock bolts that were there fit the rubbers tightly so I didnt think twice about it.
Gordon

 

So you used the stock bolts with the rancho bushings and no problems. I don't understand why 4wheelparts put the sleeve in there if the stock shocks didn't have one in the first place. Hopefully my brother still has his stock bolts some where. Thanks for the help.