Has this ever happened to anyone. I did a search and only found broken top bolts for the rear shock. My front right shock broke in two at the lower mount <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" /> The end of the shock where the big eye should be is now a stump.. and the eye is still attached to the lower A-arm (That is what that lower bit is called right?).

Luckily I was only driving slowly over a speed bump, heard a strange thud... thought that's strange must check that out when I stop (that was supposed to be in all of a 2 mins)...then on the second speed bump 15 feet away, clunk, drop about 2-3 inches, tire rub-grrr .........what the f*#! was that! Pull over and damn <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="images/icons/mad.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Satan]" title="" src="graemlins/satan.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" /> a stubby piece of shock is looking at me jammed forward of the lower A, just keeping the truck up.

Luckily I was only about 1/4 mile from work on a flat straight-ish road, so decided to risk it and drove the Runner there at 2 MPH and locked it up until my SAW's arrive, they should be here any day now.

Any one know what might have caused this failure. Possibly shocks taking full brunt of an unload since I have the sway bars removed..?

<small>[ September 25, 2002, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: NJ ]</small>

front swaybars removed??? that could definately be it! why u have them removed?!? thats so dangerous. lucky for you, you got SAWs though. good luck with that.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by AllOtherNamesTakenSo:
<strong>front swaybars removed??? that could definately be it! why u have them removed?!? thats so dangerous.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">They don't have any highways here, but do have lots of rough roads, I figure a smooth ride/max articulation is worth the relatively low risk of a roll over. Hey the max speed limit is 30mph <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> 50 would be a reasonable/fast speed for most.

Sounds very strange. I don't see how disconnecting the front swaybar would even contribute to that. Any chance to get a pic of it when you replace it? I'm curious to understand better where it actually broke.

were these stock shocks? How many miles on them? That should be about the strongest part of the front shock assembly!

Dan

Truck is a 96 with 28,500 miles on it. I bought it second hand and I believe these are the original shocks.

Pictures here in this Webshots album

<small>[ September 25, 2002, 11:43 AM: Message edited by: NJ ]</small>

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by asudan96Runner:
<strong>were these stock shocks? How many miles on them? That should be about the strongest part of the front shock assembly!

Dan</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">It's supposed to be, but after looking at his pics, stock unit looks pretty flimsy. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

Should these be under warranty? Don't we get 3 years or 36k here? I wonder how it is where you live.

Dan

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans"><strong>They don't have any highways here, but do have lots of rough roads...</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">I think that might answer your question. The factory shocks were designed for mostly on-pavement conditions. Fatigue and/or frequent topping out of the suspension might have caused the failure. Does the other front shock show signs of fatigue? If not, maybe the one that failed was just defective.