85,000 mile Service

MJ's Stallion after this last summer trip has 85k miles on her. It is ride a little mushy so I am going to put new shocks on and change the hoses ans belt.

Dragon supplied us in one of his posts the O'Reilly part numbers for the hoses (MBH 21441 and MBH 21588) drop the (MBH) and those numbers are the same for Gates. I went to NAPA and ordered the hoses. Now Dragon must of done a lot of comparison to get the 5 hoses that needs to be replaced out of those 2 hoses. 4 of the 5 hoses are molded hoses so you lay the hose you take off and cut the similar shape hose out of one of the new hoses. Try to cut as exact as possible. A couple are just a little off, but they fit good enough to work just fine. All five pieces did come out of the 2 new ones GOOD JOB DRAGON

The hose install was straight forward. The hardest part is removing the engine splash guard in front to allow access to the hoses and belt.

The belt is straight off a 2007 Ford Ranger WITH A/C. It's a little cramped around the tension pulley but I got it to work.

The square hole in the pulley takes a 3/8 tool. I used a 3/8 breaker bar that I was able to add some extension to, to pull the puller back to install the belt. You have to have something short (about 8in) first so you have room to clear the other stuff then add on pry tool to get the pulley back far enough to get the belt on.

Now the shocks. I tried to see if another source could be found for the shocks. They are progressive spring over shocks. The issue is the mounting loop that is welded on one end of the shock is welded on offset to allow the shock to clear frame areas. Any shock you would find that meets the specifications of the stock need on the Stallion the shock mounting loop would be centered. This would cause rubbing on the frame. So I fully expected the shocks to be really expensive from TBMS but was very surprised that they were just over $500 for 4 shipped. Now TBMS says the shocks are same front and back.

The ones I took off the front was slightly longer than the back. Other then that they look the same. The new shocks had 2 ea of a different part number on them. One pair looked slightly longer then the other so I went with that. TomG also just bought shocks and they told him the same thing that they were the same front and rear. I do not know what he received. The changing of the shocks is straight forward. I did one at a time. Jack up the front did them one at a time then the rear one at a time. You have to jack the mounting point up a little to align for the bolt to slide in.

The right side rear is a little tight because of the fuel line but with a wrench and deep socket it changed out.

May I suggest if you are doing shocks, belt and hoses at the same time remove the old hoses then do the shocks and belt followed by installing the new hoses. The left side rear hose is in the way of the top shock bolt and the front right hose is in the way of pulling the belt tension pulley.

Took the whole day but was not a bad job.

I'm still waiting for the UPS truck so I'm not sure what they sent. Maybe I'll get them today and I'll post what they sent to me. Busy weekend so I don't expect to get them installed until next week.

Tomg

[QUOTE=Gorilla;382415]MJ's Stallion after this last summer trip has 85k miles on her. It is ride a little mushy so I am going to put new shocks on and change the hoses ans belt.

Dragon supplied us in one of his posts the O'Reilly part numbers for the hoses (MBH 21441 and MBH 21588) drop the (MBH) and those numbers are the same for Gates. I went to NAPA and ordered the hoses. Now Dragon must of done a lot of comparison to get the 5 hoses that needs to be replaced out of those 2 hoses. 4 of the 5 hoses are molded hoses so you lay the hose you take off and cut the similar shape hose out of one of the new hoses. Try to cut as exact as possible. A couple are just a little off, but they fit good enough to work just fine. All five pieces did come out of the 2 new ones GOOD JOB DRAGON

The hose install was straight forward. The hardest part is removing the engine splash guard in front to allow access to the hoses and belt.

The belt is straight off a 2007 Ford Ranger WITH A/C. It's a little cramped around the tension pulley but I got it to work.

The square hole in the pulley takes a 3/8 tool. I used a 3/8 breaker bar that I was able to add some extension to, to pull the puller back to install the belt. You have to have something short (about 8in) first so you have room to clear the other stuff then add on pry tool to get the pulley back far enough to get the belt on.

Now the shocks. I tried to see if another source could be found for the shocks. They are progressive spring over shocks. The issue is the mounting loop that is welded on one end of the shock is welded on offset to allow the shock to clear frame areas. Any shock you would find that meets the specifications of the stock need on the Stallion the shock mounting loop would be centered. This would cause rubbing on the frame. So I fully expected the shocks to be really expensive from TBMS but was very surprised that they were just over $500 for 4 shipped. Now TBMS says the shocks are same front and back.

The ones I took off the front was slightly longer than the back. Other then that they look the same. The new shocks had 2 ea of a different part number on them. One pair looked slightly longer then the other so I went with that. TomG also just bought shocks and they told him the same thing that they were the same front and rear. I do not know what he received. The changing of the shocks is straight forward. I did one at a time. Jack up the front did them one at a time then the rear one at a time. You have to jack the mounting point up a little to align for the bolt to slide in.

The right side rear is a little tight because of the fuel line but with a wrench and deep socket it changed out.

May I suggest if you are doing shocks, belt and hoses at the same time remove the old hoses then do the shocks and belt followed by installing the new hoses. The left side rear hose is in the way of the top shock bolt and the front right hose is in the way of pulling the belt tension pulley.

Took the whole day but was not a bad job.[/QUOTE]

Excellent job on the instructions, Ted. That will really help us all out when we decide or have to tackle this.

Thanks Ted for all the info, mine has a little over 40K on it but I'm planning on changing out all the hose and flushing the radiator this winter.

Lets all thank DRAGON for the time he must of spent finding those 2 molded hoses to service as donors.

Well my shocks came in however I received 3 of the 1452s and one of the 1500. After a few emails and phone calls between me and Richard at TMS, the current set up is all 4 are the same, 1452s. From jack up to jack down on the rear shocks was 1 hour. I don't see the front shocks taking longer than 1/2 hour. Hopefully the 1 shock I need will be here in the next couple of days.

Thank you Ted for the research on the shocks.

Tomg

[QUOTE=tomg;383374]Well my shocks came in however I received 3 of the 1452s and one of the 1500. After a few emails and phone calls between me and Richard at TMS, the current set up is all 4 are the same, 1452s. From jack up to jack down on the rear shocks was 1 hour. I don't see the front shocks taking longer than 1/2 hour. Hopefully the 1 shock I need will be here in the next couple of days.

Thank you Ted for the research on the shocks.

Tomg[/QUOTE]

New front shock came in today. Only took 20 minutes to change out both. Rides real nice. Not sure if it is that my shocks were that worn or the new shocks are that much better. There is a difference between the old and new shocks and to be honest, I really don't remember the ride being this nice. Wish I had changed them out sooner .

Be nice to know when TMS went to the newer shock. Like what serial number did they start with.

Tomg