I rotated my tires, and upon test driving the Monty, the rear suspension felt odd, like I was porpoising down the road. I knew the original shocks were tired (185k miles), so I bought new KYB Monomax's at the local Autozone ($150 for the rear pair), hoisted up the truck, and started to remove the existing rear shocks. I got the topnut off the left rear shock tower, and much to my surprise, the shock dropped down to the ground in several pieces! It was absolutely destroyed. Looks like the spindle went through the side of the outer housing after shearing off ending up who know's where. It's amazing how well the truck road on just springs! New shocks went in easily, and the porpoising went away, now it's firm and controlled again. Ready for the Death Valley washboard in a couple days!
BTW, I did not remove the rear tires, but I did apply liberal amounts of PB Blaster to the nuts prior to tackling the job. I struggled to compress the shocks manually, so I opted to hoist the truck up into full droop (with the swaybar still connected), and in that position, everything lined up perfectly.
In re-reading this thread, I have a few possible answers to earlier questions:
1. According to KYB, the Monomax's are a heavier duty shock than the Gas-A-Just shocks, and are specifically built for SUV's or light trucks and off road use. They are also about $20 more expensive per shock.
2. They are a fairly ugly red color
3. They ship will all the hardware, except the bottom bolt (which is a high quality factory Grade 8 bolt and showed no corrosion or wear on mine, and its a PNW truck).
4. No instructions are included, but it's not really necessary, except may to explain the zipties that come with them? I suppose you could use the ZipTies to keep the shock compressed, but I am unclear as to HOW to do that...It was easy to lift the truck instead.
5. You need a 14mm wrench, and a 14mm socket/ratchet to remove the top nuts
6. You need a 24mm wrench or socket/ratchet and a big monkey wrench for the bottom bolts. I had to apply considerable effort to loosen this bottom bolt, and I was using a 16" long ratchet and a similar sized adjustable wrench. Once it broke free, I was able to undo all the bolts by hand. They turned easily after the initial hold was passed.
7. Safety! If you lift the truck, you need to hoist it all the way up so the rear wheels are off the ground (to extend the shocks). I have tall jack stands that I placed under the frame once lifted. Never rely on the jack to keep the truck up!
8. Once installed, the Monomax's definitely felt stiffer than the old, tired, worn out, and Broken (!) OEM shocks. However, they were really well dampened. I blasted through a bunch of speed bumps, and then through a bumpy dirt field, and the rear end was totally smooth through it all, and behaved really well. I wish I had the money to do the front end now.
