Rear shocks for 1998 Mazda B4000 2WD

What?

You will get the most room to work if you raise the truck by the frame and allow the axle to hang. Lift the trick, place your jack stand securely under the frame rail and repeat for the other side. When the truck is securely positioned on the jack stands, they you can set to work crawling around underneath. If you have room enough with the axle and frame where they currently are, then lift the trick and place the jack stands under the axle in a position that does not impede your access to the shock mounts.

The -- that's T-H-E -- most important part of this job is "securely". The jack stands must be positioned to hold the load securely. The wrong way is the way that lets the truck fall off of the stands.

Just a small suggestion here -- the nuts/bolts holding the shocks likely will take a lot of muscle to break loose. Might want to loosen the nuts/bolts WITH THE TRUCK STILL ON THE GROUND then put the truck on jack stands -- if you really have to lean on the nuts/bolts to loosen them, you can pull the truck off a jack stand.

I pulled the car backwards onto my ramps today. I had been spraying for almost two weeks the bolts so they would loosen. 18MM and 16MM to remove. I had to pry a bit at the bottom of the mount as the bolt when tightened compresses the "U" bracket. All in all it was quite easy. And they were the original shocks at 140,000 miles !