New Shocks are a good thing

« **on:** February 04, 2002, 04:28:16 PM »

I decided to share this with everyone as kind of a reminder, I have been guilty myself in the past of letting them go wayyyy too long.

Replacing old, worn shocks is one of the easiest, cheapest ways to DRASTICALLY improve the ride of your vintage auto. I first discovered this in my Ghia, I drove it around for about a year thinking that was "just the way it was supposed to handle". More recently I replaced all 4 on my Fastback, these were obviously the originals, the car has about 130k on them and to say they were shot is an understatement of epic proportions.

VWHerb actually provided these 4, I believe he got them from the local shop up there and I know they run about $20/each. They are KYB Gas shocks, some say the ride is firm but I can't feel it (of course I prefer race springs on my other car, so....) before the car would lean out of turns like a cruise ship, now not only does it not crash over every bump in the road but it's MUCH more stable.

Replacing your shocks couldn't be much easier, you unbolt the 17mm bolt from the top and the nut from the bottom and pull the old one off and put the new one back on. This time in doing it I ran into a small snag in that the lower mount on the front shocks had bonded the bushing to the stud, nothing a quick zip w/ the dremel and a cutting wheel didn't make short work of.

Trav's tech tip of the week, let me know what you think.

VWTrav

Gobusgo · « **Reply #1 on:** February 04, 2002, 11:05:04 PM »

Yes, replacing your shocks is a great way to improve handling and stability for your car. And like VWHerbson said, it couldn't be easier. When do you know to change your shocks? One way to tell is when you start to feel every bump in the road and bounce on down the road...my stepsister had a Buick(?) Sunbird that would still be bouncing half a mile past the bump that she hit. "Pilot to bombadier!" is what we used to yell when the car got to bouncing.
Or the sway of the vehicle could tell you. If (again, like Travis said) the car is swaying like a cruise liner, you might need new shocks.
But the most obvious way to tell (at least in my experience) is when you look underneath and there is oil, gas, lubricant or whatever is inside those shocks leaking down the shock and onto the ground. Some shocks that I have removed have had this substance on them and the shocks were easily compressed and decompressed by hand. To tell the truth, that is the only way that I determined I needed new shocks.
I too tend to let them go longer than I should... :blush:

Edited By Gobusgo on Feb. 04 2002 at 11:05

« **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2002, 12:53:05 AM »

Quote from: "Gobusgo"

...that would still be bouncing half a mile past the bump that she hit. "Pilot to bombadier!" is what we used to yell when the car got to bouncing...

gee, that sounds like fun!

« **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2002, 09:47:15 AM »

Just to illustrate my point

I've made a scientifically, lab created, do not try this at home, demonstration of what a bad shock looks like. (Little Hint: the shock isn't supposed to be able to stay compressed)

I had always gone in the past by the "incredible bobbing car theory" myself, however I have found that torsion sprung cars like ours don't seem to bob when the shocks are completly gone, they just handle badly and crash over bumps?!

VWTrav :whatsthat: :whatsthat:

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Topic: New Shocks are a good thing - just an observation (Read 3406 times)

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New Shocks are a good thing - just an observation

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New Shocks are a good thing - just an observation

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New Shocks are a good thing - just an observation

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New Shocks are a good thing - just an observation

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