[MTCK]

Well crap. Everything was humming along nicely until...... With the driver's side f250 shock mount and shock installed I went to push in the clutch and... NO GO. The pedal end of the z-bar hits the top of the shock mount squarely. I think it would clear if I bent the bar just a bit towards the vehicle centerline. Has anybody ever tried this? Can't believe I didn't think to check the travel of the clutch prior to drilling all those holes in my frame...

I ground the heads off of the rivets for the old shock mount and was able to use one of the existing rivet holes for the new shock mount once I opened it up to 7/16".

I also came up with a good way to deal with these high pressure shocks: some very large cable ties from Napa make a great adjustable length limiting band around the outside. I actually calculated the length the shock should be with the axle fully drooped by measuring the distance from the original mount to the axle mount and then adding the 4.5" I determined I needed (previous post). I set the shock to this length using the zip ties, then bolted up the top hoop and mocked them up to ensure proper angle (shock parallel mount). After I marked the location of the new upper mount, I marked the bolt hole location from the back of the frame through the existing rivet hole that I reused. Cut the mount to length, drilled the first hole on the vise, and bolted it up. I drilled the next two holes through both the frame and the mount on the vehicle.

Any bright ideas on my clutch linkage problem? Maybe it's hydraulic time, but I really want to go for a drive!