I have never had shocks on my bagged 96 tacoma but had the mounts so i've finally decided to put shocks on it and while I was measuring the front mounts for the shock size it kinda looked to me like the mounts line up together at a weird angle to where it might be twisting the shock weird, is it just me?, i'd hate to buy front shocks just have to have them snap because the mounts weren't angled right, here is a picture:

 

i would re do the mounts...

looks to me like the upper mount is too weak and bent back.

ideally the bolts for the shocks should run parallel with the frame rail. the way the top is perpendicular to the travel of the arms seems like it would wipe the bushings out pretty quick. and probably cause it to bind.

you should run shocks though. just curious... why is the bottom of the bag not sitting on the cup straight?

 

there are 3 holes on the bottom cup and when the bag is centered on the cup the thread on the bag and the center hole dont line up. i havent had any problems with it and it doesnt seem like it's wearing the bag out excessively, there are some things ive been wanting to change since i got the truck im gonna do a torsion bracket setup for the uppers in the front and whole new tubular a arm deal.

 

yeah that upper mount is bent.

 

mount for that shock is mounted wrong....... like burnz mentioned...... should be mounted the other way to have the correct shock travel movement...

as it is........ that will cause binding and eventualy a dangerous failure.

 

yea i figured i'd ask around before I waisted money on front shocks ( at least right now), much appreciated!

 

Ok same subject different topic ( to keep it all in one thread) Im gonna get rear shocks and hold off on the front ones until I get time to have someone fab some new mounts in the front but I was looking through the monroe mounting length chart (http://www.monroe.com/catalog/documents/08_MountingLengthSheet.pdf) for shocks, I have a loop/loop shock like this :

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn172/wurdupmagazine/100_0454.jpg

I noticed theres different kinds of shocks there (sensa-trac,monroe-matic,monroe matic-plus,gas-matic,etc) does it matter? also as you can see in the picture it has a red bushing inside of both ends of the shock but it shows on the "mounting code" page of monroe a "loop mounting code" section and a "bushing and sleeve" section, im not sure which one I have if someone can help me with that , I know it's not the stem or the stud plate obviously. just need someone to help me out with that. Thanks!