Schmucker

My dad picked up the one shock that I was able to get off and he compressed it in his hands. It went very easily, then he tried to pull it out, and it took a lot more force. It is almost like the shocks are 90/10 in the rear (opposite of 10/90 drag shocks). He said that that is what caused my spring to wear out. I think that those shocks wore out the original spring and a shop/previous owner replaced it (probably shop). And in that process they broke the tabs off of the differential cover and welded them back on and put a new steel leaf in and left those shocks. It doesn't matter now I suppose, but damnit, that is just dumb. Figure out what caused the failure, don't just fix it assuming it failed. That or they broke the tabs off when they changed the differential fluid. One of those two. Is there any way to tell if I have the original spring or not? That would answer which one it is, simply because I want to know. Either way, good shops are hard to come by.

wombvette

Sounds like normal shock action. Easy in and hard out is normal. It would have nothing to do with breaking the ears off the differential cover. Improper installation does, however and is the most common way for them to be broken.

Schmucker

It wasn't 60/40 or 70/30 or anything, it was just incredibly easy to push it in and took all of my strength to pull it out. It was more like 99/1. And I know that the shocks isn't going to cause the ears to break, but I think that their poor action would wear the spring out and a shop replacing the spring and breaking them would.


[Modified by Schmucker, 9:32 PM 1/22/2003]

redvetracr

Could the reason your suspension is "fubared" as you put it be because it is a 25 year old Chevy that may not have been maintained properly?? You know "stuff" does wear out. ...redvetracr

427V8

LMAO @ redvetracr

:lolg:

WashingtonRacer

HEHE.. I think I have that problem too. Old age.. HAHAH..

Actually It's a funny story. When I bought the vett, it had the monoleaf spring in the back.. About 10 minutes after I drove it away from buying it I enter a gas station, AND CRACK!!! I look under there and what do you know, the spring is cracked. I ended up driving it the rest of the 400 miles. When I got home I bbought the 420 lb composit spring. worked good for a while now my suspension is really soft again. So I am gonna at some point dig back into it. Would bad shocks make the suspension soft and bouncy??

MN-Brent

I think there is a psycological-emotional release to hear someone else suffer similar fates as you. Thats probably what some of the other guys are joking about above.

Ive heard other forum members talking about the tabs breaking just trying to get the spring bolts torqued down. There is a method to the madness for that. Just chalk it up as another thing to fix.

Maybe some other forum member can pipe in as to how to correctly torque the spring bolts - something like make sure you have some weight on the spring to help flatten it out over the mounting area before final torqueing.

Also get the heavy duty rear end cover - you probably wanted to get that one anyway. Did someone say vettes were expensive to work on??? :lol:

Brent...

a454corvette

Very true. The OEs want the car to have an "acceptable" ride for all customers, and they do it by letting the suspension compress easily, and resist rebound. If they went the other way and made it hard to compress, all the non-performance-minded drivers would howl about the ride being too harsh.

72rdstr

LMFAO!! :lol: :lol:
I just replaced the factory original fronts on my car, and this thread pretty much describes their action. Do you really think they were worn out? I was going to sell them on ebay. I'm sure they're rare (I mean, how many factory orignal '72 shocks can be left laying around?). :yesnod:

Larry B.

Original springs taper at the end (get thinner). They also have a small reveverse flip up at each end. No aftermarket springs look like that. Research the archives at http://www.NCRS.org for info on why the ears got broken. It's common !. Incorrect spring installation procedure will do that. There is a picture of one guy that broke them TWICE.

page62

Don't pay any attention to all this folderol about the shocks.

They're shot, plain and simple. Over time they simply wear out. One of my rear shocks was like yours when I pulled it out -- absolutely no resistance in one direction. The other one was fine.

Now that your're facing bankruptcy, I'd recommend a set of KYB shocks from Summit. Best price around -- and best bang for your very limited bucks!

MN-Brent

page62

Which KYB's do your recomment. There is GR2 ($25) and Gas Adjust ($35) I think?

Im also going to be looking at shocks this spring.

Brent....