Which Bilsteins?

Cfiler83 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:18 pm

Building a lift for my KJ. Just hit 60,000 miles this week (we celebrated by giving the KJ a bath and a wax massage)
I'm looking at OME HD springs, but undecieded on shocks. The cheaper price of Bilsteins has me leaning towards them. What part number should I use for the bilsteins, or should I just stick with OME shocks aswell.

Planning on clevis and boiler spacer aswell with the OME springs in front, and either the extra isolators or a spacer for the rear aswell incase if it makes a difference.

If anyone knows of a good place to order from let me know aswell, trying to save asmuch money as possible as have to buy tires aswell as the lift.

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:46 pm

From what I have installed and rode in after installation they both ride about the same
Bilstein front shocks are F4-BE5-D916-H0 and rears are F4-BE5-6458-H7
shockwarehouse has free shipping and little better price on them than some other places
http://www.jeepinbyal.com has the Bilsteins plus the springs, top plates and front Teraflex bumpstops, rear upper isolators so you could get it all shipped across the border in one bunch.
http://www.boulderbars.com (AllJs) has the springs and OME shocks as well of course and also a great place to buy from

Zack A · **Posted:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:43 pm

Actually the rears are: F4-BE5-D917-H0

Its ok tomm :-)r

vintageroy13 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:29 pm

on jeepin by al's it says that those bilstiens are for stock libbies. i need to replace the ranchos in the front of mine with 2.5 inches of lift. will these work.

tommudd · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:41 am

vintageroy13 wrote:

on jeepin by al's it says that those bilstiens are for stock libbies. i need to replace the ranchos in the front of mine with 2.5 inches of lift. will these work.

Yes in the front you use the same ones lifted or not
only need longer in the rear

tommudd · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:45 am

Zack A wrote:

Actually the rears are: F4-BE5-D917-H0

Its ok tomm :-)r

Its OK Zack
the ones you posted are for a stocker not lifted
lifted is F4-BE5-6458-H7 for 2.5 inch lift

At The Helm · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:55 am

tommudd wrote:

vintageroy13 wrote:

on jeepin by al's it says that those bilstiens are for stock libbies. i need to replace the ranchos in the front of mine with 2.5 inches of lift. will these work.

Yes in the front you use the same ones lifted or not
only need longer in the rear

So in theory if i took out my daystar spacer i could replace my stock springs with 927s and be fine with stock front shocks? Should i still use the daystar top plate? My stock shocks have 12k on them and are in good shape.

Zack A · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 9:31 am

tommudd wrote:

Zack A wrote:

Actually the rears are: F4-BE5-D917-H0

Its ok tomm :-)r

Its OK Zack
the ones you posted are for a stocker not lifted
lifted is F4-BE5-6458-H7 for 2.5 inch lift

but...but...o well I tried. :furious:

tommudd · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 9:37 am

Atthehelm wrote:

tommudd wrote:

vintageroy13 wrote:

on jeepin by al's it says that those bilstiens are for stock libbies. i need to replace the ranchos in the front of mine with 2.5 inches of lift. will these work.

Yes in the front you use the same ones lifted or not
only need longer in the rear

So in theory if i took out my daystar spacer i could replace my stock springs with 927s and be fine with stock front shocks? Should i still use the daystar top plate? My stock shocks have 12k on them and are in good shape.

NO
with new springs you need to install new shocks as well, stock springs and shocks are weak at best, why would you want to upgrade the springs and not the shocks? Ride would not be the best it could be with new ones.

At The Helm · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:16 am

So jba had the bilstein F4-BE5-D916-H0 listed as replacement front shocks for a stock kk. So those will be long enough to use with ome 927s? I'm confused on why you can use stock length shocks with lift springs.

Would using my daystar top plate with those shocks/springs help?

Sorry for the thread hijack, i can start a new thread in the kk section if this is a :banghead:

At The Helm · **Posted:** Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:32 pm

^^^ ?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:40 pm

due to the geometry of the front suspension the coil is captive to a certain length and compression of travel

you use the stock shocks (but upgrade them! to ome/bil or whatever from the cruddy manufactured OEM stock shocks)

stock length,,, not stock shocks

the differences in the lift coils cause the static ride height to be higher than stock

you lose some droop in relation to static ride height, but it's a constraint of the system, if you put longer shocks on it your CV joints would thrash themselves into little slivers

At The Helm · **Posted:** Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:41 pm

Thanks for your reply. It still seems to me that stock length front shocks with lift springswould over extend upon suspension decompression , but you guys have been running them wih no problems so i guess i can take your word for it. If i go with 927s and bilsteins (stock length) should i go back to the factory top plates or keep using the daystar drop plate i have in now?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:42 am

Unless ya runnin front steel the 927s with 3 conduit nuts in the clevis will put ya at 3" which is bout the limit your cv's can deal with

i used 927's and ranchos with 3 conduits in the clevis and had right at 3" till steel got ahold of it..

so i'd say go back to the stock top plates and either sell or keep the daystar tops

and i'll tell ya why, because at the moment, there's no reason

but if i'm not mistaken, the daystar top plate bolts are too short to use with a 3/8th top plate spacer later on if you decide to do one.. if you've got it assembled with the stock top plates.. then all you'd have to do is drop the assembly put the top plate on the studs and reassemble

if you're using the daystar top plates itll require disassembling and switching, or replacing the studs to use a top plate spacer

since you have stock top plates in hand.. that's what I'd do

as for the front shocks, the shocks rod goes through the top plate and bolts and has the coil sandwiched between the top plate and the captor built into the shock can, captivating the coil between the top plate and the lip on the can

it can't extend or compress any more or less than it can when it's disassembled in your hand - ignoring suspension geometry such as a bump stop hitting the control arm and preventing further travel

which, btw you'll need extended bumpstops if you don't already have them, assuming you do since you had the daystar

i know the front shock/coil travel thing is a bit of a pain to understand, it's the longer/stronger coil that lifts the vehicle higher in it's range of travel, unfortunately the cv's can't operate at certain angles

At The Helm · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:27 am

Thank for your input! When i installed my daystar, i actually had to press out my original studs and reuse them in the daystar. (wasn't easy without a shop press) They didn't give me the shorter new studs like what the Frankenlift has, iirc. I'm just gonna have to try to remember how the original top plates go back together with shocks and bushings. I understand not going too high for the cv's sake. I'm aiming for 21 1/2" or so (kk), which is where i'm at now with the daystar and clevis lift. My stock ride height was about 19" with 1500 miles on it. Hopefully that is what the springs + shims or clevis will yield. I think i'm going to have to experiment a little since i have a kk and not too many people are running ome springs.

At The Helm · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:26 am

Btw, what do mean by "steel" or "front steel"?

At The Helm · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:45 pm

Steel bumper. Figured it out.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 23, 2011 12:10 am

yeah sorry i truncate "bumper" usually when referring to added front end weight , since i'm referring in general to either a backbone and winch, or steel bumper or steel bumper with winch

927's don't have the guns to hold up a steel bumper without a winch, for more than about 30-40k before you're back in the dirt

well not a very heavy one anyway...

Cfiler83 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:17 am

tommudd wrote:

Zack A wrote:

Actually the rears are: F4-BE5-D917-H0

Its ok tomm :-)r

Its OK Zack
the ones you posted are for a stocker not lifted
lifted is F4-BE5-6458-H7 for 2.5 inch lift

Oh no, I ordered the F4-BE5-D917-H0 for the rears. :banghead:

Ordered from shockware and just delivered on friday, got tires installed today and was planning on starting suspension tomorow.

Can these still be used or am I screwed? I don't want to mail these shocks back to exchange them as would have to pay restocking fee and mailing charges. :cry:

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:57 am

Stock length shocks will top out and blow.
That's why you need longer when lifted

Which Bilsteins?

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