Does the orientation that rear shocks are installed matter? I am replacing the shocks on my Cherokee and the new ones have the bar pins installed differently from the ones that are installed...

 

Do you mean upside down?

 

Are they rc? Is the bar pin on the canister side? If it is move it to the shaft side so thet the shaft is up otherwise it will clunk.

 

Yes, they are RC, and the bar pin is on the shaft side. That means that if I install them now, the canister will be down. Is this correct? Right now the original shocks are installed with the canister up.

 

Oh, no the shaft needs to be up

 

Then that means that whoever installed the original shocks, they installed them upside down!

 

BTW, the bolts on the rear pinion yoke on the rear differential shared off during a climb (that's why I have to change the shocks). Can these bolts be removed or is it easier to just replace the yoke?

 

Sheared off, not shared!

 

What happened was that during a climb, the rear lift blocks (made of aluminum) broke, loosening the rear differential and twisting the shocks as well as shearing the bolts holding the rear shaft... Ouch! The bolts are the ones at the rear yoke. I disconnected the rear shaft and was able to limp home with the front shaft in 4hi. I had to replace the blocks with aluminum ones, but I am on the lookout for steel ones. Other than that, we had an awesome day! As I've heard somewhere else, "Build, break, fix, repeat.". Awesome!

 

I just noticed that one of the bar pins on the new shocks is on that shaft side, while the other one is on the bottle side. How do I put them on correctly? Is this normal or is it a factory defect? What gives?

 

Ok... Shocks are cylinders DOWN and you can move the pins with rubbing alcohol, that makes it easier to remove them!

 

Don't replace the yoke, just find the little u bolt straps at the parts store. You usually have to drill out the threads but you will just have to drill out the old bolts too.

 

Got it!

 

A lot of aftermarket off road shocks are oriented this way, canister up, shaft on the bottom. Just did a RC lift yesterday and the shocks that came in his kit were this way.

BTW, what did you do to the front shocks since the stem was on the canister?

 

I change the bar pins to the shaft side and installed with no problems. I didn't do anything with the front shocks, just the back ones.