where to buy stuff

[Boonsie]

Hey folks, my eagle is getting closer to hitting the streets and the next thing i'm doing is steering and suspension. I'm gonna buy everything that I can from ESPO, but they lack a few things. I'm gonna buy all stock stuff from them, then I'm gonna raise my eagle the 2" in the rear I'm either doing blocks or adding a leaf. In the front I'm gonna put in the 1" coil spacers to give me the 2" of lift. So now here are the questions.

I need to get gas shocks front and back to accommodate the 2" of lift. Which ones and where do I buy?
Where do I find the 1" front coil spacers. I've tried ebay, there are a lot of spacers, i just don't know what ones I can use on the eagle. So again, Which ones and where do I buy?

If anyone has any other thoughts or suggestions, I'd like to hear'em.

Cheers

[doc65]

Most of the shock manufacturers have decent docs on their site, I've used Monroe's site alot(Gabriel's as well) though I didn't actually always buy their shocks, to figure out some other vehicle in the same weight range intended for the same kind of use, with the same or close mounting & with the length that I wanted.  An example is that the shocks on the rear of my ZJ were for a Nissan XTerra, Perfect length, same weight range, etc, but I think I had to push out the sleave in the bottom bushing.  That allows me to run an inexpensive off the shelf shock that I can buy anywhere vs either a "cheap"(in the worst sense) or EXPENSIVE(is there really a Best sense for that one?) 4X4 specific shock.

Doc

[Boonsie]

Cool. Si I checked out Gabriels and they have shocks front and rear for the eagle. So now I assume I just see what other cars use the same shocks, look up the shocks for those cars and I might get a better selection of what I can use?

http://gabriel.com/our-products/car-light-truck-van/pv-detailed-specs?partnum=81491
http://gabriel.com/our-products/car-light-truck-van/pv-detailed-specs?partnum=81340

So my next question is, can i use stock height shocks after i put 2" of lift in it? If I have to get something different to compensate for the lift, how do i go about that.

[doc65]

Well that may help some, but a better or at least wider selection is to lookup the upper & lower mount type and the extended & compressed lengths then go looking for something that works for you, ie same mounting type or at least easy to make work(like where I had to press out the sleave in the bushing) and if you are lifting it any you can find a length that accomodates that lift then you could reverse engineer what vehicle that shock came from(same website) then go ad shopping, the Xterra ones that worked well for my ZJ I found that I like the Monroe Reflex shocks on it, and I found Checker/Oreilly had them on sale for like $25 each, but you had to know the car to tell them it fit, telling them you want a Stud top. bar pin bottom with an extended length of 28" & collapsed length of 19" doesn't work.

25 years ago the counter guy a Knecht's(a regional parts house in Oregon where I grew up) would have pulled out the specs book & I'd have been out the door in no time parts in hand, but not anymore, now it's "what year, what make, ... 2 wheel or 4 wheel... that last one cracks me up when I'm asking for something like a radiator cap

Doc

[Boonsie]

So I now have the all that info, ext. length, collapsed length and so on. So if I'm raising it 2", would I just add 2" to those values. For example the front has an extended length of 13", would I want 15". Collapsed length is 8.75", now would I want 10.75"?

You know, it'd be a lot easier if someone chimed in and said exactly what to and where to buy to accommodate the 2" extra. Instead of me doing actual research and learning thing.

Thanks for the info so far.