I just finished installing Bilsteins on the rear of my 2000 Ram 3500 Van.
What bothers me is that the top bushings are so fat that the bolt doesn't
screw all the way thru the nut. It lacks about an 1/16 inch of being level
with the nut. Its torqued down as tight as it can go, the bushing is
squashing out all around. After I did the first one, I compared the bilstein
bushings with the old OEM shock bushing and it was obvious that the new ones
were much larger. I looked at the second old one before I took it off and
the bolt was just barely level thru the nut. I did a lot of research first
on the net and found comments to the effect of "don't trim the bushings".
The Bilsteins instructions even cautions not to tamper with any part.
I even inspected the work afterwards with a flash lite to make sure that the
saucer washers were turned the correct way. I'm sure I have the correct
shock because Bilstein only has one shock listed for the dodge van from 73
up. The only option I can think of now(other than nothing) is to take them
back off and trim down the bushings, but I am hesitate to do all that work
all over.
Question: Does anyone think that its unsafe to leave as is. Any Ideas?
Has anyone else had this problem?
Tanks ,
Bill
LD - 30 Apr 2005 21:11 GMT
Something is wrong. The threads should always go through the nut, rule of
thumb is 1 1/2 times the dia. I'd say it's dangerous to use it as you
describe. Are you just going through "sheet metal"? Do the bushings have a
lip that should set in a hole that might be misaligned?
LD
> I just finished installing Bilsteins on the rear of my 2000 Ram 3500 Van.
> What bothers me is that the top bushings are so fat that the bolt doesn't
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Tanks ,
> Bill