They seem pretty popular. Ill give them a shot. Hopefully it doesnt feel like Im lazily bouncing along ocean waves after the swap.

 

I have 4600’s on my first gen. I’m very happy with them

 

Working on swapping the front shocks today with some Bilstein 4600's, running into some trouble with the bottom mounting point. The sleeve on the shock absorber is about 1.5 - 2 mm larger than the gap between the lower mounting point, really spreading the tabs out as I am working it in. Is this par for the course or what? The old shocks (totally blown out btw, no rebound at all) were snug but slid out with only a small amount of coaxing. The sleeve on them measured just under 38mm, same as the lower gap.

Shock absorber model is 24-014687, as indicated by Bilstein for use on a 1990 4Runner, no differentiation between 2wd and 4wd. I have been firmly tapping it into place with a large flathead, but I am getting to the point where it is starting to feel more difficult than it should be.

 

Ended up prying the tabs apart a fair amount with the shock removed, then slowly but surely working the bolt through. PITA. Also replaced the lock-washer that a previous owner lost and never bothered replacing. It was $0.85 cents from Ace Hardware. Sometimes people amaze me. Cinched everything down afterward and it seems fine. My only gripe is that the top of the shock is canted a slight amount toward the front of the vehicle and I had to pry it away to seat the rubber grommet properly. Hopefully over time I dont end up with a nice little slot chiseled in the upper mounting surface. I dont have whatever magic torque wrench Bilstein thinks I should have for tightening down the top nut, so I used my highly calibrated "torque wrench arm" to tighten the top nut to precisely 19 ft lbs.

Touched up some nicks and scratches on the mounting points with some black enamel, and cleaned up and coated the scratches on the shock itself with some yellow nail polish that I sent my wife on a special assignment to find. She nailed the color.

Before:



After:




Previous shocks were some form of ProComp. They both do not rebound at all when compressed, and I can easily compress them by hand. Totally shot, I cant believe the truck drove as well as it did.



Bilstein rubber grommets are flat on one side, and they provide flat washers to mount them. It is a bit odd to me since the grommet expands up and around the washer a bit when compressed. I smeared some axle grease on the threads to hopefully keep them from corroding as bad as the previous ones. The nut on the old shock was so seized that I snapped off the stud over the nut. Had to use a pipe wrench on the shock itself to get it loose.



Passenger side CV boot has given up the ghost. New CV axles are now on "The List."

 

Any recommendations for replacement ball joints? Stick with OEM or is there a good aftermarket?