Purging new shocks
 

Is it still necessary to purge new shocks by extending upright and compressing upside down through 5 cycles as shown in the Service manual?

Depends on the type of shock you're using. If you're using an OEM shock, like NOS or actual non-gas charged shocks, then yes you still want to do that.

If you are using more modern gas charged shocks, or even gas charged shocks that simply look like the original shocks, then no, there's no need to do that.

I am talking about gas charged.

Yeah, there's no need to do that with gas-charged shocks. Just put them in.

In fact, there was never actually a "need" to do it to the old style shocks either. Any air trapped in the body would have eventually bled out under normal driving anyhow. Purging the shocks before installation just made sure that they were functioning 100% normally right after installation.

Shocks