cruiser
Well-Known Member
Good evening MOPAR kiddies. Its time for the next chapter of sleep inducing reading from Bob's Component Resto. So climb into your jammies, fix yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate, and curl up by the fire with tonight's installment. Yes, there's just nothing as comforting as curling up by a nice, cozy fire with a warm technical manual to keep you company. But I digress. On to tonight's discussion of shock absorbers. Whatever classic MOPAR you're driving, it came with four brand new shocks from the factory. I'd dare say that almost no one still has the originals on their car. My 1974 Duster had its original set changed out in 2010. Off came the factory originals, and on went a set of Monroe shocks - Super 500s in front, Sensa-Trac coil overs in the rear. A body vehicles were susceptible to their rear leaf springs sagging over time, so the coil over rear shocks restored my Duster's original ride height. I'm keeping the coil over rear shocks to keep the back end up (see photos), but I wanted to put more original looking shocks up front. The closest that I could find to the factory original were Gabriel Classic #82090 shocks. They're almost identical to the factory units and come in black. Note the photos of the aftermarket blue Monroe front shocks, compared to the thinner and taller Gabriel units. Upon disassembly, I discovered that whoever replaced the shocks in 2010 wasn't too concerned about using the right fasteners for the job. Apparently, he just used whatever he had in his shop that day. Note the photo of the two lower mounting bolts that came out of the car, which are obviously different from one another. In the fifth photo below, I show the two incorrect bolts I pulled from the car. The bolt on the right doesn't even have the smooth shaft that the shock absorber lower mounting bushing rides on. Observe the worn down threads that the bushing ground away, and the incorrect lock washer. Then note the photo of the incorrect bolt next to the correct one, the correct one being a Grade 8, 2 1/2" x 7/16" fine thread bolt, nut and flat washer, all torqued to 50 ftlbs. So in went the new shocks with the correct mounting bolts for the first time in 11 years. Now that the job is complete, the car doesn't really ride any better, but I've completed another project to make my Duster as stock as possible. Somehow, I sleep better knowing that my car is assembled with the right parts and fasteners, torqued to the correct value. How about you? What's your shocking story. I hope tonight's installment has made you nice and sleepy. So put down the mug, turn off the light and go to sleep. Night night!
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