first time off road and i broke something

[jastutte]

took the 96 se7 off road for the first time today. before setting off, i did a seafoam induction. then strapped my son into the passenger seat and my daughter into the jumpseat in the back and dropped the rover into low gear. tore around for awhile on the gravel roads to blow out the seafoam and such and then hit the mud. damn, this truck is fun. i played around with all the cdl settings. yes, i only used the diff-lock on loose surfaces. drove up and down the stream and all over some gravel bars, then back to the mud and grass trails.

everything was going great until i picked up my wife and youngest son, packed up, and headed back towards the asphalt. turned a corner and saw a black shock sleeve sitting in the gravel. dropped the s-bomb because for a second i forgot my kids were with me. i got out, picked up the sleeve, and checked out the driver's side rear shock. looked good. walked around to the passenger side and all i could see was the cap of the shock hanging from the upper mount. crawled under, took a peek up, and there was the shock still attached to the lower mount but sheered off at the top. the shock body is still in perfect working order, expands and contracts just fine, but where it should attach to the cap and eyelet there is sheered metal. i must have done this when i went up the embankment from the lower road to the higher. i did hit it pretty hard and must have been going faster than i thought. the shocks are newer oem and have less than 10,000 miles on them.

so, anyone else ever seen this happen? i'll post some pictures of the shock when i can.
almost forgot to mention that when i hit the embankment the flashers went off. i could hear the relay clicking away and checked the button, but it was not depressed. after i turned the truck off and then back on again the flashers turned off on their own. is this a factory warning about hard impacts or that something is broken?

regardless, i had a great time and love this truck. even better, my kids loved riding around in the mud and my wife was quite understanding despite the fact that the rover is technically hers.


thanks,

jeremiah

 

[joey]

It is just a bolt that attaches the shock to the top mount... must have busted the bolt...

Mine broke once while trying to change the shock... a little welding and I was back up and running you can always source either a used bolt, or replace with an aftermarket shock mount.

I am in Chicago this week for training so not at my home library (computer with more data than I should be allowed to have). So can't source too much data for you.

Will Tillery @ www.roverguy.com will have the bolt.

I think Rovertyme used to make (they may still do) aftermarket shock mounts.

 

[Disco Mike]

You said the shock was black, if so, it is so warn out you should just replace them. Factory shocks and springs are usually gone after 60,000 if you wheel much.
Time to start looking at some Old Man Emu HD shocks.