OME rear shock doesn't fit?

Hi Guys,
So i noticed my rear shock leaking on my 08 Taco Reg Cab and decided to replace it with an OME rear shock. I bought the truck already lifted with an aal and bilstein shocks in the rear. Also looks like there is a u bolt flip kit.

Anyways it looks like there is a flange on the rear shock but decided to see if the OME shock would fit anyways and found there is an alignment issue.

old shock with flange pic:


I watched several videos and read a few threads saying that it should be fairly straight forward but now im starting to think that the shock mounts have been modded or bent from impact.

This is as far as the ome shock will go before it makes contact with the lower bracket.

Below pic: Rear shock mount from bottom. Doesnt looks like it got hit by anything. The shock body is noticeably fatter than the bilsteins. It was a bitch to get it in the bottom mount as well. had to use a dead blow hammer a bit. Did anyone else have that problem?



Im still trying to line up what the previous owner may have done. Can anyone give me some advice or insight into this? Any help is much appreciated!

 

you might need to grind bushing of the bottom part of the shock, in order to make the shock come back farther.

 

That bilstein had a shock extender - the golden part with the bolt. That's why it fit before.

 

Looks like a 5125 bilstein with an adapter on it, you need a longer shock to get that lined up properly, if not just set the truck down a little till it lines up and then try lining it up with the hole closer

 

Thanks for the replies! My truck is jacked up in the garage as we speak!

I put in a 1.5 inch progressive icon aal that i bought along with the OME kit to replace the existing aal and overload (im still working on the driver side. There is a bit less travel now which is what i was going for since there was way too much rake. The shock looks long enough but cant move forward to line up with the hole in the upper mount. It is about half an inch off. I could probably get it in but it would be real tight against the lower mount.

MWOAP,
when you mention grinding the bushing are you talking about the rubber cushions on the lower shock?

 

yep. I have had to do that numerous times when helping install lifts for people.

 

Thanks for your help guys. Grinding down the bushing made it way easier to install in the lower mount and gave the shock more play. Lifting the axle made the holes align. Great advice!

 

I was about to ask you if you had the truck supported by the frame with nothing under the axle to hold it up.

 

The problem with lifting up the axle to get it to align, is that your shocks are now acting as your top-out stops instead of your springs - eventually they will fail if you articulate them alot.
Toytec makes an extender kit http://toyteclifts.3dcartstores.com/Shock-Extenders-05-UP-Tacoma_p_288.html

 

All i got is the icon 1.5 aal and ome shocks in the rear now and i even took the overload out as icon says to do. It's weird that they didn't include that with the kit if these shocks are made to be used with a lift.

Thanks for the link! Ill probably end up ordering those and seeing how work out. I don't off road very often but definitely don't want them to top out while doing so.