Finally getting around to straightening out my tire situation and thereby eliminating my rear air shocks. A local Mustang guy told me Koni is the only way to go, and I was thinking 50/50 rear 60/40 front but I don’t see Koni offering any variability, and not listing ANY available rear shocks. So, community: What shocks do I want on my '70 base 351C? Appreciate the input.
He’s mostly right. Koni or Rancho are the only options, KYB is a really cheap and not very good option,
Remember that every catalogue I’ve seen for rear shocks are listed the same for Mustang as for Cougar, which is not correct. The Cougar is three inches longer than the Mustang, so the rear leaf springs for the Cougar are also longer than the Mustang. The correct rear shock for the Cougar is, I believe, about an inch and a half longer than the one listed.
Thanks Royce/fordnutz. Koni isn’t listing rear shocks for the Cougar on their website; I’ll check out the Rancho.
I recently went through this (last year) and wound up buying a front shock for a Ford 3/4 ton 4x4 front application to use on the rear (to get the proper ends and length).
The monroe number is #32286
|Collapsed Length|13.5 in. Collapsed Length|
|Extended Length|22.13 in. Extended Length|
If you get into the catalogs and look up compressed and extended length, then further parse for ends (both straight threaded) you can come up with something.
I wound up getting another set of KYB because I already had them and my local NAPA warranteed them under the “lifetime warranty” deal. Otherwise I would have bought some adjustables like these guys. I was just trying to get it back on the road after doing rear leafs.
Thanks for that. I’m still trying to find time to get the tires mounted, but wound up buying the “Cougar specific” KYBs - not so specific; they definitely don’t match the numbers suggested above (I think I need something close to 11.3 collapsed and 18.5 extended.) I just want to get rid of the air shocks for now and will continue the “hunt”. Those Monroe’s sound pretty close.
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The older these cars get the more I’m having to make some specific things work, or do research to find a common part that works. Probably just how it’s going to be now, I reckon.
You should be fine with what you have, unless you lift the rear with new higher arch springs.
Going to try to maintain original stance; had to get the 295/60 15’s out from under there.
I used KYB’s on my 1969. Part # KG4517 on the front and 344052 on the back. They work fine. The back shocks are listed for an American Motors 1980 Concord with the 4.2L engine. These have the correct dimensions for the Cougar. Rock Auto has them at a reasonable price.
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I’ve been happy with the KYB Excel-G’s on my 70. I am sure you can find better, but they work just fine for my needs, and they look original too.