Fox Shocks on a 1983 F250

I've had them on a couple days now and can say they're better than anything I've ever run and worth the money.  I had planned to run the standard shocks front and back but ordered a completely different shock than what I'd picked out for the front, so I used the reservoir shocks I'd set aside for the blazer since it's not running and has fairly new 4600's on it for now.  

Part numbers:
Front  980-24-029
Rear   985-24-239

Also 985-24-045 is the number for the standard front shocks I'd meant to use, iirc it's even a stem top so you wouldn't need an adapter.  You need the adapter because almost any universal shock is eyelet mount, and our trucks are stem on top.  Adapters are $15 online or easy to make.  If you ever feel like doing this to a different vehicle Fox lists all the universal options on their website along with compressed and extended lengths, just match them to whatever you need.
 Fox states that all of their shocks must be installed rightside up, if you install them upside down they won't work.  

Front shock was simple, take out old, bolt adapter to shock top first, then bolt adapter in to top mount and work the bottom in.  The bottom bushing needs to be removed and shortened on both front and rear shocks.  Take off maybe 3mm or so, but check as you go.  





Rear shocks needed a little more work, but I already did it so all you need to do is get bushings with 5/8 ID and 3/4 OD and use them in place of the top bushing.  I couldn't find the right ones so I got flanged oib's which should work, but I don't expect them to hold up so I'll swap them with steel soon.  Bottom needs to be trimmed as mentioned earlier.  I also replaced the bottom bolts with larger ones to fit the bottom bushing better.  





The shocks that were replaced were something blue and cheap up front and some kind of yellow Monroe in the back.  The Fox shocks somehow give it a much smoother ride over bumps while giving it a more planted feel on the road, I found a fun twisty mountain road on the test drive after and was able to push it a lot harder than I'd ever expected to.  There's no more feeling like the back end is bouncing off the road on bad sections of potholes, it feels stable even on the worst spots I know.  Larger impacts are easily absorbed.  I need to find a good dirt road to really test them on soon though.  

Things I'd do different, I'm not sure this truck needs the reservoir shocks up front but without the cheap shocks it's more capable than I realized so maybe I'll rethink its role.  The front eyelet mount just has a large washer on top over the very large hole that was for the rubber isolator, I'm going to hop on the lathe soon and make a stepped washer that will fit in that hole securely but I don't think it's necessary.  And oib bushings crack too easily to use for the rear, I'm going to either make or buy some stainless ones very soon.  Overall though it's a very simple mod that is very worth it.  

Good report.  Sounds like the Fox shocks are something to consider.

However, according to 4WP those Fox shocks won't work for me.  Here's a comparison of their lengths to that of the Bilstein 33-185552's that I have:

                            Fox           Bilstein
Extended Length:  15.75         25.93
Collapsed Length:  10.65         15.91
Travel:                   5.0           10.02  (I have 8" of articulation)

So what am I missing?

Also, my front shocks are eyelet mount, as you can see below.  I used the shock mounts from the 1990 truck, Huck, I parted out.

Mine is all stock suspension wise.  With your sas you've got more travel for sure, the ttb/leaf combo only has 5" of travel.  The front shocks summit calls for on the stock suspension are 14.3 extended and 9.75 collapsed.  I'm honestly not even sure these numbers work for the 150 or 350 tbh.  

That's the front shock mount from a bricknose?  It looks really narrow, you might have to do more work to make these fit in there.  I'll measure the top in a bit and let you know though.  

Finally had time to sit down and look at the numbers you gave, for your truck it looks like the 983-02-036 is the way to go.  When I get home from work I'll try to remember to measure the eyelet width and see if you'd have to come up with anything there too.

Yes, those seem to be the ones, although it doesn't show the bolt size for the eyelet.  I'm using 1/2" bolts on BB as I had a noise with the 12mm ones that were in there.  They were just slightly too small and there was movement and noise.

Width on the eyelet is 1.5" with all the rubber, you could trim that down to 1" for just the shock itself.  Internal diameter is gonna go off that bushing, it's a 3/4" od so anything that you want to run will work.  It's a little loose with 1/2" hardware but not concerning