Rear shock sleeves

arengant · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 12:48 am

I have bilsteins in the rear with my lift, they did NOT come with inner sleeves, did I lose them in shipping or will it be okay? I have added washers top/bottom to make it fit, still rattles like a mother! I am going to retorque to try and help, but I figured I should have sleeves in there too.

Thanks.

EricR · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 9:53 am

I found sleeves at Lowes and they were a perfect fit

BugginKJ · **Joined:** Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:35 pm **Posts:** 4576

The bottoms are no problem as they do have sleeves in them and the mount tightens nicely on them. The uppers do not come with sleeves, never have. I took the sleeves out of some factory KJ shocks prior to doing my lift so they were ready to go when I did lift. You have to cut them out of the factory shocks and then size them so you can press them into the Bilsteins or do as Eric stated and find something to work from a hardware or automotive store. I like the fact of using the factory sleeves from the shocks because they fit perfect width wise but you do have to shave them down slightly to be able to press into the Bilsteins. :JEEPIN:

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 10:48 am

Wow, those expensive Bilsteins don't even come with new sleeves? :shock:

My $40 Skyjackers had not only one, but two sets of sleeves so that you could match them up for a perfect rattle-free fit. They have been perfect for 22,000 miles now. It's lame that you pay almost twice as much for Bilsteins and don't even get what you need to make them work out of the box.

BugginKJ · **Joined:** Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:35 pm **Posts:** 4576

LibertyCRD wrote:

Wow, those expensive Bilsteins don't even come with new sleeves? :shock:

My $40 Skyjackers had not only one, but two sets of sleeves so that you could match them up for a perfect rattle-free fit. They have been perfect for 22,000 miles now. It's lame that you pay almost twice as much for Bilsteins and don't even get what you need to make them work out of the box.

and you'll go through 4-6 pairs of those before I wear out one set of Bilsteins :roll:

I bet a million your ride quality has gone way done hill, you just don't notice it. Also with 22,000 I am impressed they haven't blown out on ya yet or have ya even looked at them..... :roll:

Skycrapper are just that, crap.

arengant · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 1:42 pm

are we talking about rubber bushings or steel sleeves? I had skyjacker and superlift on my first toy (76 F-150) that were great, but I never put more than 10k on them... I hope these bilsteins are worth the hassle

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 1:43 pm

Well, as somebody who has ran both... I have to say you're wrong.

A) The Skyjackers are valved softer so that they are a better fit for Jeeps. Bilsteins and most other high-dollar brands are valved for full-size trucks and therefore ride too stiff on a Jeep or small truck. So actually, my ride quality is better.

B) The Skyjackers will last every bit as long if not longer than Bilsteins. I've run both before, and neither outlasted the other.

People who spend twice as much on a shock thinking they are getting twice the quality are sadly mistaken. In many cases, these shocks come out of the same factories and get different paint applied to them.

arengant · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 1:46 pm

LibertyCRD wrote:

People who spend twice as much on a shock thinking they are getting twice the quality are sadly mistaken. In many cases, these shocks come out of the same factories and get different paint applied to them.

doh! But I like the German name!

BugginKJ · **Joined:** Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:35 pm **Posts:** 4576

LibertyCRD wrote:

People who spend twice as much on a shock thinking they are getting twice the quality are sadly mistaken. In many cases, these shocks come out of the same factories and get different paint applied to them.

azmotoman · **Posted:** Fri May 13, 2011 10:20 pm

Most Ace hardware stores carry a good selection of sleeves and bushings.

blackwidowkj06 · **Posted:** Sat May 14, 2011 5:31 pm

LibertyCRD wrote:

Wow, those expensive Bilsteins don't even come with new sleeves? :shock:

My $40 Skyjackers had not only one, but two sets of sleeves so that you could match them up for a perfect rattle-free fit. They have been perfect for 22,000 miles now. It's lame that you pay almost twice as much for Bilsteins and don't even get what you need to make them work out of the box.

I have the Sykjacker Hydro 7000s for the rear...they work perfectly fine for me.

Aren't rear sleeves also called rear boots too?

tommudd · **Posted:** Sat May 14, 2011 6:12 pm

Years ago Skyjacker was OK , anymore not so much, lower quality

arengant · **Posted:** Sat May 14, 2011 6:49 pm

Just installed a 3.25 Rough country on my buddies JK, and he had inner steel sleeves on all shocks, so Yeah, I am retarded for not making sure they were in there when I installed them. Rattles bad and my wife wants to kill me

liquidxit2 · **Posted:** Sat May 14, 2011 8:58 pm

Thank God I bought OME. Sleeved and awesome!

tommudd wrote:

Years ago Skyjacker was OK , anymore not so much, lower quality

My buddy had a skyjacker setup on his ranger that was pretty nice a looooong time ago. But even 10 years ago it sagged bad and he had to eventually replace it.

arengant · **Posted:** Sun May 15, 2011 7:50 pm

For the record, YOU DO NEED TO USE THE METAL SLEEVES!

This is like my 4th lift ever, and I have no idea why I didn't make sure the sleeve was in there, probably tired and rushed. This is what it looked like when I took it down...

So ordered some energy suspension 5/8 inside diameter hour glass. Now I have to find the right sleeve. Traditionally I'd go with the 5/8 OD 1/2 ID ones, but the stock bolt is slightly smaller 12mm, so there could still be a rattle.

At lease the noise went away after dropping the shock so I 1000% know the rattle wasn't some other ghost :BANANA:

arengant · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 9:51 am

New sleeves didn't help, I ended up going with OME shocks!

Rear shock sleeves

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