Stupid Question but I can not figure out how to swap out my front shocks on my 05' 1500 4x2 can anyone point me in the right direction?

Here's what I could find for you

Front

- Remove wheels before attempting to change the shocks. If you try to do the shocks with the wheels still on the truck, and you haven't lifted the vehicle (meaning increased ride height) then there is no way you are going to get your head and hands inside of the wheel well unless you are a gnome or elf of some sort.

- Before removing wheels, use a small hydraulic bottle jack to support the lower control arm at CURB HEIGHT. The idea here is to keep the control arms (and the truck) at the height they would be if the wheel were on the truck. It doesn't have to be exact, just roughly close, and it will make the installation easier in the long run.

- Remove the top stem nut first... do not go at it right away with an impact gun, because the rubber bushing will result in a cancellation of the impact effect... basically, you'll be working against yourself. Use a long handled socket wrench to unscrew the nut until it stops "squeaking", or until the nut stops bouncing back after a turn. One or Two full revolutions of the nut is plenty. Then you can have at it with the impact gun, and it'll zip right off.

- Now, remove both lower contelever retainer nuts. The 'bolts' / studs are pressed / welded into the lower control arm, so don't get any ideas of trying to remove them. And whatever you do, don't strip them, or you'll have to remove the spring coil assembly in order to drill them out / replace them.

- The shock should literally fall out of the coil assembly now. The whole process shouldn't have taken you more than 10 or 15 minutes at most.

- Compare old shock to new shock... Use provided nut, but reuse all factory rubber bushings from the stem of the old shock (unless new ones are provided and meet your satisfaction... I find that most OEM rubber/plastic products far outmatch aftermarket pieces - excluding performance parts).

- Installation is the reverse of removal. The two front shocks together shouldn't take more than an hour or so for the novice shade tree mechanic provided power / air tools are being used... if done with hand tools and minimal jack / lifting equipment, then I estimate 2 hours.

- Be sure to check torque specifications! Stem bolt torque, lower cantelever nut torque, and wheel/lug nut torque is very important... (mostly the wheel - you're not going to die if a shock flies off, but if a wheel flies off you're in trouble). Reference shop / owner's manual for your specific vehicle ... however, as a general guideline, for 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton pickups (and like vehicles) I usually torque lug nuts to 110 ft lbs.

thank you!!! The damn thing has been driving me nuts tonight, I knew it had to be easier than I thought it was..

...I agree with everything mentioned above.But,if you have a problem with the top nut-I usually like to put a pair of vise-grips on the square part of the shaft and hold until you loosen the nut...

You are I'm glad I could help.

vice grip on the square part at top of shock is a deff help, and you dont have to have the truck jacked up with the wheels off to do this, If you cant put your arms in a stock truck to get to the top nut you have some huge arms. Only thing you need to jack truck up for is to get the shocks out and new ones in the bottom.