Rancho 9000 shock question

[AndyC]

Well after trying to get ahold of someone I knew that would know -- it was just to late everyone's sleeping. I decided why not. It would have been a quick and easy job if I just did it. O-Well while I had it on the lift I greased the drive shaft and lubed all the suspension. I took it out for a quick ride and it seems fine. I have them set to 9. It was just weird I know steering dampners operate like that but I though all shocks were pressurized out. I guess you learn something new everyday

Well it's sleep time
Thanks Guys.

Andy

PS 3 of the originals were bad only one rear was good. I'm going to hold on to them and maybe get them rebuilt someday

[VehiGAZ]

You're fine, Andy. Gas-pressurized shocks will expand when they are unladen, but not all shocks are gas-pressurized.

The dampening of any shock is provided by the resistance of the oil to flowing through a narrow-diameter hole, and that hole size is adjustable on an adjustable shock like the Rancho 9000. But the gas pressurization does not really provide the dampening in the shock (although it does provide a little, I guess), nor does it provide any positioning of the car on its suspension - the spring does that, and the shock only dampens the motion of the spring.

[AndyC]

I also got a email back from Sams Offroad Equipment www.samsoffroad.com stating that these are hydraulic, not gas pressurized shocks and that they are fine Just to pass the info on they have a deal going for a set shipped for $275.
I just got back in from taking my Mom to a Dr appointment and I'm happy with the ride again.

[VehiGAZ]

Speaking of being happy with the ride again, I tightened up my steering this weekend per the procedure posted here and on the sister Isuzu board, and it worked great. I tightened the screw as much as it would go without sweating (about 3/4 of a turn), and it took all the slop out of the steering wheel. The ratio is still a little slow off center, but the 1.5" of slack is gone.

[transio]

Gaz,

Do you have a link to that? My steering is getting a little loose.

[VehiGAZ]

But of course...

http://www.planetisuzoo.com/articles.htm/88

This procedure basically just takes up the slack in the string of ball bearings in the recirculating-ball steering system.

I want to add a correction of sorts, though. In this article (with pictures!), it says:

"Making the adjustment needs to be done in very small increments. Tightening the adjustor too much will make driving the truck VERY difficult. It won't return to center, and it will behave like the camber is out. By small, I mean like the distance from the 5 to the 10 on your watch."

That was not the case on mine. I loosened the lock nut, and while holding it in place with a box wrench, I tightened the adjusting screw probably about 3/4 of a turn until it didn't want to turn easily anymore. Another poster somewhere said they tightened theirs 3 or 4 full turns. I think it's a case of the looser your steering is, the more slack there will be in the adjusting screw. My advice is to tighten the screw until you feel the resistance, tighten the lock nut, then give it a test drive.

A couple of tips:

- Take a quick drive before you do this to fell out the slop in the steering wheel as a point of reference (I hadn't driven my VX in two days when I did this, and it was hard to figure out how much it helped until I drove to work on Monday.

- Definitely remove the top of the fan shroud. If you can figure out how to get the bottom half off, do that too. It gives you a the room you need to work.

- My steering box is mounted at an angle that did not allow the use of a 2-foot rachet driver extension and a deep-well socket, because the extension was blocked by the radiator itself. I ended up putting the deep-well socket on a two-inch extension and used a breaker bar as a crow-bar to break the lock nut free. Whatever works, right?

Good luck!

[VCAMILO]

Thank you VehiGAZ; I have been having a slopy stearing for the last 6 to 12 months. I will give this a crack this weekend.