Issues with Tubular HD dual shock towers.

[ajh]

I am in the process of fitting the inner fenders and one wing and I have run into issues where the dual tubular shock tower does not seem to clear the stock opening in the inner fender. I suspect this is also an issue with the single tubular shock towers as it is fouling on the tube closest to the chassis and to the bulkhead.

So, questions I have are:

1. Are the outboard shock mounts supposed to point out and away from the chassis or in towards it? I fitted them pointing outward as it seemed the only logical way to do it, but before pulling things apart again it would be nice to have a confirmation.

2. Am I supposed to cut the inner fender or can I get away with hammering it out to fit around the tower?

3. If I do need to modify the inner fenders, why do the vendors selling these towers not disclose this in their descriptions as is customary? You know so you know to wait and re-galvanize the parts AFTER making the modifications to them instead of finding out when you get to the point in the build that all your parts are finished and ready to re-fit? Are they idiots or is it me?

Thanks, much appreciated. Hope to get this sorted, get my next parts order next week, and hopefully get the engine running and the front together within 2 weeks. Then of course deal with the wiring harness which will be fun and once I have the new front doors in about a month (shipping screw-ups going on for the last 5 months) I can start to design and fabricate the custom dash. (yay).

Thanks for the help (this time and all the others, I really value the help I get from the community here as there is not really enough local community here with Defenders to be able to pull much beta and most of them are either NAS or various MOD variants that really don't match up to my build anyway.)

[Litch]

I seem to recall hearing of a similar problem recently with tubular mounts supplied by one of the large mail-order companies in the UK. No you shouldn't have to modify anything to make them fit unless something on your vehicle is bent or seriously misaligned.

I fitted a set of standard height tubular mounts to my 90 a couple of years ago and they went straight on with no modifications necessary but I seem to recall that you have to fit them the correct way around otherwise they did foul the inner wing, have you tried rotating them on the mount by 90 or 180 degrees? Of course this could be old age creeping in and I am talking rot but I am sure I recall something along these lines occuring.

[Bowie69]

I was under the impression the secondary shock mount was towards the front of the vehicle.... a bit like the RRC on air suspension setup.

Never done a twin shock arrangement, but that's what I thought the game was....

[ajh]

Here are photos of what I'm talking about. I would be very happy to find out that I've just done something wrong and that it's an easy thing to fix.

[KKMobile]

Think this has been posted as a problem before and it was a simple case of cutting the inner arch to fit round??

[western]

the dual shocks mount for the 2nd shock needs to be forward of the axle.

got single tubular mounts on my 110, had to ease the inner wing edge so the base ring would fit under it, but no big problem otherwise.

[ajh]

Yeah, got things fitting but it required a bit more than a trim. Had to cut all the way through downwards (posted a photo) but things seem OK, will just have to make up a flexible cover.

Thanks.

[mike4444244]

Yup the 2nd shock sits in front of the stock one not outboard of it

Mike

[Litch]

Ah ha.

Missed the bit about it being a twin shock arrangement on my earlier post.