Front Shock Replacement

[TomW]

Had some fun today trying to replace my front shocks, ordered a set of Monroe 16-0201 which are listed for my 1990 NG.

First issue is that the set came with 2 diffent shocks, a 16-0201 and a 16-0301.

I went to install the single supposedly correct shock however the old shocks fitted to the vehicle are quite a bit longer and the mounting tabs on the bottom are clocked slightly. Long story short the supposedly compatible 16-0201 would not fit however the other shock (16-0301) appears to be correct?


Anyone fitted Monroe shocks to a gen1 before? Possibly this is just a defect with the set I purchased however would like to get to the bottom of it before ordering a replacement set.

Photos here: Old shock on left, 2 Monroe’s (Yellow)

https://ibb.co/eVKcg7

https://ibb.co/bMQHg7

https://ibb.co/nFR18n

[TomW]

Just an update in case anyone has this problem themselves, turns out the previous owner had lifted the Pajero which adjusted the geometry of the suspension and as such prevents standard shocks from being used. Conventional wisdom suggests that standard shocks should work for a small lift but this was not correct in this case.

The shocks designated for a "lifted" vehicle have the correct mounting points.

[goowacjai]

TomW, thanks a bunch for this post it helped by knowing there are replacement shocks lol, and also there are parts to lift up the Pajero gen1.

[MMC89TD2.5]

[QUOTE=TomW;581966]

2 diffent shocks, a 16-0201 and a 16-0301.

Photos here: Old shock on left, 2 Monroe’s (Yellow)


Hi mate, so did you send one back & fit a set of the 201 or 301's? or did you keep the lift & get something different? Were the springs standard or am I silly

[TomW]

Both the springs and torsion bars have been replaced with aftermarket items by the previous owner to achieve approximately 40mm of lift and greater load carrying capacity. I have left this setup in place as it seems to work well.

I ended up sending both shocks back and re installing the original items that came with the car as I was due to leave on a trip and needed the car running.

Since then unfortunately I have not had the time to revisit upgrading the shocks however have a few off road trips planned for the summer months so will most likely try and revisit it before then.

I think this time I will try EFS shocks rather than Monroe as they list a product specifically for a lifted NG:

https://www.efs4wd.com.au/products/products?make=MITSUBISHI&model=PAJERO&series=83&productid=1323

[pharb]

Are the original bump stops still intact, as they should be the limiting factor in suspension travel for Gen 1s and Gen 2s not springs or shocks.

Maybe the previous owner has removed the bump stops that limit downward travel which will then allow a longer shock to be fitted.

The negatives of this (but not the end of the world) is that the longer shocks will probably act as the bump stops for downward travel, and as the shocks are longer they will probably not compress to as short a length as the original so they might bottom out before the control arms hit the upward travel bump stops again forcing the shocks to act as bump stops.
This will potentially shorten the life of the shock.

Also if the suspension has more downward travel it may over stress CV joints, particularly when at full droop and running out of travel, with the drive line being shock loaded as the wheel gains and then looses traction.

Again, not the end of the world, but every off road performance improvement usually comes at the cost of reliability and/or on road performance.