Reviews for Bilstein 24-141727 Front Heavy Duty Gas Shock for 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK & Wrangler Unlimited JK with 0" Lift
Awesome shocks, mine were shot, but what a difference these made! (Layed off due to Covid, I couldn't afford to do the lift I wanted =/ ) Things they don't tell you... When assembling, the washers cup AWAY from the bushings, so bottom one cups down, bushing sits with inner lip up into frame mount point, next bushing on top of the mount point- lip points down, then top final washer cups up. Don’t do it this way, and you’ll never get the final nut on.
When I did the install, the original top nuts on both sides were rusted on solid, even with a wire brush and 2 days of PB Blaster. On Driver side, directly above the nut is a plastic clip for 2 vacuum lines. Move them to the side and break off that clip. In the engine compartment, there is a 10mm bolt holding the brake cylinder in place (there’s another 2 underneath, but you don’t need to loosen them). Remove that, and you will be able to slightly tilt the cylinder aft out of the way, and you can reach your socket on an extension down through the hole (where the clip was) to the shock nut. Be careful with that brake cylinder!! On Passenger side, the tray for the fuse box completely blocks access. I ended up taking a hammer and chisel, and breaking off a bunch of the plastic tabs underneath the tray. Then up in the engine compartment, I slid the vacuum lines up out of the way, lifted up the fuse box, and carefully plotted where I was going to punch through. I made a small square hole with my chisel directly over the nut. See the attached pics.
When installing the shocks, you’ll need an allen key (5.5mm I believe) and a 17mm ratcheting wrench. I’ve heard people just pull the boot down and grab the piston with their hand, but I felt it would be less a PITA to use the allen key through the new holes than to try to get that rubber boot reseated. In retrospect, probably even easier just to clip the zip tie, grab the piston w a rubber jar opener or something, and then use a new zip tie on the boot. Top nut is only torqued to 20 ft-lbs, but get at least a couple threads up through the nylon lock nut.
Love the shocks but there are no instructions on helping you install them. Downloaded a set of instructions online that were mostly in German and very difficult to decipher. I was installing them on a stock JK with no lift and the boots were crammed up. Ended up cutting tie wrap and adjusting the boot and then re-tie wrapping them. Also had to stick with the original bushings because the ones that come with the shocks are too thick and won't let enough of the shock stem stick out to get the bolt on. Thank goodness the original bushings were still in good shape. No mention of any of these complications anywhere to help you out. I am a novice, a mechanic or someone who does this a lot would breeze through this.
Love the ride of the shock.......just lacking in the installation help!