I’ll have the wheels off of my 69 convertible next week and want to change the shocks while I’m at it. The car has new springs and bushings. The first shocks I used were the white KYB Gas a justs and the ride was horrible. Going over a bump or RR tracks it sounded like it was coming apart. Next set was the silver KYBs and there was only slight improvement.
Several people have told me to try a basic Monroe or Motorcraft shock for a more smooth ride. Any recommendations?
Thanks
Paul
The KYB Excel-Gs seem pretty comfortable to me. I installed a set last year and liked them right away.
Be sure to get the correct Cougar p/n for the rear - longer extended length.
The KYB shocks offer low price and low quality. I swore I would never buy another after I had one fall apart during a 2000 mile road trip and had to change the rear shocks in an auto part store parking lot in Colorado.
Monroe and Gabriel are both good quality brands that don’t cost much and are made in our country or Canada. You can also find original Autolite and Motorcraft shocks if you are willing to do the search.
That’s the set I have on the car now and I hate them!
What are your negatives, Paul? They’re working Ok for me during cruise and drag.
If you have the shorter ones in the back (343219), they are not good on bumpy roads.
The longer ones are better (344052).
But ride remains far from today’s cars.
If you can afford it get Konis. Otherwise find quality non-gas shocks
Both the front and rear have a jarring ride over bumps like pot holes and RR tracks. My hardtop with the gas-a-just KYB shocks is a thousand times smoother. The hardtop has stiffer springs front and rear with poly bushings and heavy duty sway bars
Paul
Odd. I have 302 air conditioning coils up front (what my car is) and 390 2-barrel XX-Code leafs in back. Glides over railroad crossings like a Lincoln.
Rock Auto sent me a set of Motorcraft shocks and they got installed the other day. Found that the shocks I was running were the KYB Gas-a-just not their regular shocks. Ride is a lot better but still not like a “Lincoln” as RB said. Something is still wrong as with a decent size pot hole there is a jarring sensation. Also discovered at some point I put in a rear sway bar that is squeaking away at the bushings. There is some anti seize compound on there and it has now hardened up and I need to clean and re apply.
Any suggestions to why my ride still stinks? The front and rear springs are new (ok 10 years old but only 3000 miles) from ESPO springs. Had to cut a little from the front coil to get the correct ride height and even after 3 different sets the rear never was high enough. I’m running those half leave truck helper springs to get me the correct ride height in the rear.
Paul
If I’m not mistaken, rear helper springs make the rear springs stiffer, which may explain your ride characteristics.
Thanks I was thinking the same thing. It was a nightmare getting springs that were even close to correct from ESPO. This was the third set. Each time I would send them back saying they needed to bring the car up X amount of inches. Each time they sent them back to me it was X -1".
I had the same issue with the rear leafs on my convertible with leaf springs from Eaton. Had to send them back to get the height I wanted. On the other car the leafs from Espo gave the correct height with no problem.
Steve
Paul,
I was also thinking that the helpers that may be impacting your ride quality.
