Thread: Do defenders normally break rear shockies?

I busted a shockie on my defender about a year ago, not too sure why, the inside "piston" came to grief, had a fair bit of use off road but nothing too dramatic ....That's the only one I've done in 5 years.

Only been driving the 110 for fourteen years and about 300,000km, but never broken a shock absorber in that time. Do you have lifted springs by any chance?

John

I broke an eye off on a back Boge shock which was pretty new.
When I replaced it I found that I had accidentally left one of the large tapered washers on at the base of the pin, then put another there.
My 92 Rangie has a nut to hold the top pin on , which is designed to have the correct clearance when tightened to the shoulder.
If you have nuts on your top pins, make sure there is only one washer at each end of the shock eye .
If pins, then do not have more than 1 washer behind it. They are loose to allow for sideways movement as the shock extends.
Some shocks are bad. I have seen several Ranchos that have peeled their top eye away, and I have seen a Bilstien that had unscrewed from the top eye.
I had some TJMs a while ago and aside from being too stiff they were good. They used to be made by COFAP, one of the biggest shock makers in the World. TJM are usually good with warranty also.
Regards Philip A

I had a pedders shock fall in half coming down from the Mitchell Plateau in WA, but never one break like that.

I agree with John, has something changed to cause it to reach full extension like a lift?

looks like they are topping out....

Check your spring heights...

I've broken one on the County and one on the disco, both rear. Both broke like the one in the picture at the eye. A friend of mine shims the mounts on the chassis to make them line up better, works for him.

mine has killed the front towers but nothing else

not uncommon, particularly when urethane (stiffer) shock eye bushes are used, and very common on something like a Rancho where a small diameter eye and insufficient weld is the cause.

The root cause is that the shock mount sits at an incorrect angle for the rear of a Defender, or anything that is unladen and uses lifted springs. LRA used to make a kicker/angle shim to correct this.
The other possible cause is the damper fading/dying creating what Clarkie said due to insufficient rebound control. This can be caused by either driving hard/fast on bad roads, heavily loaded and/or using a stiffer spring on a stock valved damper.