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Post by sixty9santa on Sept 25, 2007 1:57:11 GMT -5
According to the JC Whitney web site, Gabriel makes Extra Heavy-Duty air shocks for the Granada! And the price seems to be right @ 62$ for a pair!
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Post by hipogranada on Sept 29, 2007 11:47:54 GMT -5
Why air shocks? According to the JC Whitney web site, Gabriel makes Extra Heavy-Duty air shocks for the Granada! And the price seems to be right @ 62$ for a pair! If the car looks like this... it doesn't need air shocks, it needs springs. New springs are readily available from a number of sources. JCWhitney is one place, where they source them is unknown. ESPO Springs (www.espo.com) makes them, prices comparable to Whitney and they will do custom work to your specs. At the far end of the scale try Eaton Detroit Spring. They were the OEM supplier, I think. They have the original blueprints. But they're more expensive. These cars are known for broken leafs in the rear springs, it's very common. Air shocks are no fix, not even temporarily. When a leaf breaks, often the axle shifts forward or back at that end and causes the car to track a little sideways. Pieces of broken leaf have also been known to fall out going down the road. A chunk of tempered steel flying at someone else's car ain't funny.
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badmav70
Daily Driver
ford nut
Posts: 144
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Post by badmav70 on Sept 29, 2007 13:39:18 GMT -5
plus the upper shock mounts are not strong enough for the punnishment of air shocks... been there done that big mistake... get new springs!
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Post by sixty9santa on Oct 2, 2007 23:03:01 GMT -5
Can the upper shock mounts be improved?
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Post by Jeff Roblin on Oct 3, 2007 7:54:57 GMT -5
I think you'll just have to take our word for it that it's a bad idea. I had a new set springs put in my '76. I had them made here in Toronto. I think I only paid $350 installed. I had them done to original specs. In retrospect, I might have had them add an extra leaf to each side.
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Post by doneaton on Oct 3, 2007 8:29:00 GMT -5
Do the versaille springs have the same problem? mine seems to sit a bit low in the rear. Don
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Post by Jeff Roblin on Oct 3, 2007 9:47:59 GMT -5
Yes - they all have the same squatting issue. I had Eastern Spring here in Toronto make me a set. Of course, the dollar wasn't strong then. It might be worth it to cross the ditch now and have them installed.
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Post by sixty9santa on Feb 15, 2008 0:44:01 GMT -5
Huummm.......I'm still wanting to get a pair of air shocks and the only problem seems to be the upper shock mounts, right? I am willing to mill out new shock mounts out of steel blocks and weld them in place if that's all there is to it!
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Post by sixty9santa on Aug 19, 2008 0:32:59 GMT -5
I'm very curious to know what had gone wrong when air shocks were used. Is the problem only with upper shock mounts failing/collapsing? Or did the under body also suffer damage?
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Post by hipogranada on Aug 19, 2008 16:39:57 GMT -5
I'm very curious to know what had gone wrong when air shocks were used. Is the problem only with upper shock mounts failing/collapsing? Or did the under body also suffer damage? Well, it depends on whether or not you like driving a car that goes around corners predictably. first off, all of the shock mounting points, both top and bottom, are engineered to withstand a certain amount of impact. This takes into account the fact that regular shocks *compress*. Air shocks, when pumped up enough to raise the back of the car, don't have that kind of "give" to them. So every time you hit a bump, you're doing about the equivalent of whacking the shock mounts with a hammer and chisel. That's kind of an extreme example, but you get the picture. Sooner or later you're going to punch the floor where the upper shock mount goes through, or crack the spring plate on the bottom. This is 30+ year old metal, after all. Imagine the possibilities if that lower spring plate let go and the axle shifted. The manufacturers don't use air shocks for a very good reason. They design the spring rates and shock valving to work together. If you're wanting to raise the ride height you have several better options than air shocks - and the best option is NEW SPRINGS. Talk to a place that can do the job right - make springs to give you what you want, and recommend shocks that will work well with the revised spring rates and height. These cars are known for busted leaf springs. On my own car, a chunk of leaf spring actually came out of the pack going down the road. You should have heard it whack the underside of the car when it came flying out. I'm really lucky it didn't punch a hole in the gas tank, which could easily have happened... or worse yet, become an airborne projectile that ended up in someone's face. If you're seriously considering air shocks without replacing those springs, it's a mistake. Sorry, but that's how it is. I'm old enough to remember the heyday of air shocks in the late '60s, early '70s, when everybody wanted L50x15 tires on the back of their cars, and experience tells me that in the long run, it's a bad idea.
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Post by robic58 on Aug 19, 2008 17:26:34 GMT -5
Gary- Couldn't agree with you more. In my younger days, I totally ruined a still reasonably good 1967 Chevelle Malibu. Was fun while it lasted, but not very long. One top shock mount punched right thru the body floor pan, after hitting a pothole, sending the rear axle askew, twisting springs out of their mount,and the rear wheels reshaping the rear quarters.Like you, I was lucky the gas tank went unscathed. THank you very much, no air shocks for me! Ralph
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Post by hipogranada on Aug 20, 2008 8:15:37 GMT -5
That's what I'm talking about, Ralph. And that Chevelle was a coil-spring car. With leafs, when you lose the integrity of the spring pack the position of the axle can go haywire. Great way to end up on your roof when going around a corner! I can sort of see using air shocks to level a car when you're carrying a heavy load in the back, short term. But that extra stress on the shock mounts is asking for trouble if you're going to run it that way every day. When the trend was big n' littles, fattest tire possible in the back and skinnies in the front, air shocks and extended rear shackles were the usual answer, but like you experienced it isn't a very good answer. Shocks are not intended to hold up the car - their purpose is to keep the thing from bouncing uncontrolled. Bottom line - if our reader wants to change the ride height of the car, then he needs to engineer it properly. The only sensible way to do that is to have a spring shop make a set of springs to get the job done safely. And I'd forget places like JCWhitney on this one. Know what you're buying and what the end result is going to be before shelling out the $$. Want to do mail-order, no problem, there are reliable places to go for that and they can make exactly what you want. ESPO's prices are little more than Whitney's who-makes-em stuff and they'll actually talk to you, make what you need. (granted, I still can't get the image of the junk Whitney used to sell out of my head. Great place to get a winky-eyed cat for the rear window, though.)
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Post by hipogranada on Aug 20, 2008 8:31:55 GMT -5
JCWhitney no longer carries Winky the Cat. Sad day. However, they do stock this fine styling item:
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Post by Jeff Roblin on Aug 20, 2008 15:17:40 GMT -5
Eastern Spring here in Toronto made my last set of rear leafs from factory specs. I'm sure there are places in Montreal that would do the same.
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Post by sixty9santa on Aug 25, 2008 16:44:51 GMT -5
Well,
I guess that I do have a tendency to by hard headed. And after all the outstanding info from all of you, I ordered a set of KYB GR2 gas shocks for the rear, an Addco sway bar and also some chromed traction bars from Lakewood.
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