BIG thanks to Mark Kressley!

[98Cobra]

I just wanted to publicly thank Mark for helping me/showing me how to change out my shocks on the beast tonight. We swapped in the Bilsteins, and it went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Counting breaks for BSing, talking to people that stopped by inquring about Mark's shop, and drinking beer, it took maybe 2 - 2.5 hours. Not bad. We found that the passenger rear shock was SHOT(compress it and let go and it takes oh, 30+seconds to come back out) and the left front shock was leaking. I have 35500 miles, for the record.

Anyway I learned a lot, and just wanted to give him some public kudos!

:burnout:

[Sixpipes]

It's been my experience that guys who possess the wisdom to add the Roush suspension to their Lightnings are generally speaking, pretty cool guys. At least that's been my experience. :p

[Mark #2]

No problem. Now if I just had that lift that I have been wanting. Now accepting donations for the Talon garage fund.:)

Anytime someone wants to bring me beer and have me stand around drinking and showing them what to do, the offer is always open. :)

Garrett are sore today? How did the other project go?

Mark

[98Cobra]

Well Mark, I was a little sore today, but not as much as I thought I would be!

The other project was completed in what had to be record time: about 4 hours by my count. I have a bunch of pics I will post, but we are going to try to put together a FAQ with pics for the Hotchkis install for the website, I think.

MAN am I tired right now. :)

[Crawford]

I second that big thanks to Mark. We got the Hotchkis kit installed in under 4 hours. We had to make 2-3 calls to good ol Mark to make sure we knew what we were doing.

The kit is pretty nice. It is a little odd how it feels stock in the front and more stiff in the rear. Another thing that is weird is that the back seems lower than the front. I am wondering if we did something wrong to get it this way. It looks as if the back was lowered about 3 inches and the front maybe 1 inch. I might have to have some of you pros take a look at it to see what we did wrong if anything. I may have to pull the front coils and cut them a bit to get the front equal to or lower than the rear... :confused:

[Mark #2]

Crawford,
Did you use the original rubber spacers in the front or the Hotchkis poly spacers on the top of the spring?

Using the original rubber spacers on the top of the springs, my truck sat level, with the Hotchkis poly spacers there is about a 3/4" rake. I tried both and liked the Hotchkis poly ones on the top the best.

Mark

[Crawford]

Mark,
I used the ones that came with the springs. It is definately higher in the front. I think this is because the back went lower than 2 inches when we swapped the rear leafs you could tell that it was more than a 2 inch drop in the rear. I dont know what to do to fix it. Any ideas?

[Mark #2]

What are the measurements from the ground to the fender lip? I still have them for my truck but they are at the house.

I can look at your truck after work most days if you want.
Mark

[Crawford]

Sounds good Mark. If you are going to be available tonight I could swing by so you can just take a quick look. Unfortunately I didnt take any measurements or before/after pictures. :mad: Just let me know and thanks again!!!

[Autothrottle]

By any chance, Have you ever installed drop shackels?

[Crawford]

Mark,
Nope. Suspension was stock.

[MadMax]

Crawford...all ya need now is ruslow HAL QA1's :tu: ...the truck will bounce around like a 4X4 with the Bilstein's... :nono:

www.ruslow.com

:burnout:

[Crawford]

Checked that website on the shocks and it says under construction... MadMax what was your real name?

[MadMax]

Crawford. Stan Martin at ruslow@yahoo.com


did you get the truck to sit level? I did not experience this problem :confused:


this is the grim reaper 666 or something :tu:

[Crawford]

Mark,
Thanks again for the help yesterday evening. The truck rides so much better now.

What we found out over at Mark's was that the front is in fact lower than the rear. It just looks like the rear is lower due to there being more space between tire and wheel well in the front compared to the rear. The level on the bed rail and measurments from the ground to top of wheel well were the proof. Mark found out that my front shocks were installed incorrectly as we mounted them without the front being compressed. This caused the shock to be pretty loose when compresses. We pulled the wheels and jacked the truck and tighened the shocks under compression. Mark also showed me that the bump stops on the rear were about an inch from the rear axle. These two problems explain why the front was loose and the rear was so tight. After fixing the shocks and sawing on the rear bump stops the thing rides 200% better. Mark, I owe ya big time. If you need help putting those secret weapons in your garage on your truck just let me know, always willing to lend a hand and learn a few things despite what Doug would have you believe :d

[Crawford]

Stan,
Sorry didnt put the screen name with the real name. Plus I am bad with names!!! ANYWAY all is better now with the truck see above post. The truck rides pretty good now it does get a tad choppy on bad wavey streets but for the most part its good stuff now :d

[MadMax]

Now...I am very cornfused :confused: I give up! :p Back to my shell!!:hammer:

LOL

[L8 APEX]

Don't confuse Stan with Mad Max, that would hurt their feelings or something. I haven't seen Stan post on this forum yet :)