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Changing shocks

Started by 1980sdga, 05 May 2011, 09:37 PM

1980sdga

For the rears the back seat has to come out. I did the interior stuff first before getting greasy  ;D The shock bolt is to the right of the yellow vacuum line.  You have to remove a plastic cover (Mine was translucent white) to get to the top shock nut.



The rear shocks go through the coils. I had to jack the car up really high to get it out through the trailing arm so be careful...



Old vs new.



The front shocks had 12 point bolts which were a PITA on the first one. If you remove the top nut first you can compress the shock and move it around some which makes access to the lower bolts easier.



I got some Sensen shocks off ebay. They may be OK but I have to send one back for a replacement. We'll see how that goes  ::)  They were cheap but if I had known this I would have spent more $$ and saved the hassle.

Big_Richard

the correct shocks for the car aren't that expensive.

given the work involved, i wouldn't of gone for cheap knock offs as you will be doing it again - just my 2c worth is all  8)

1980sdga

I believe you are correct Tom  :-\

I read some reviews on some other car forums and couldn't find anything bad about the Sensen shocks. In fact most folks had really good things to say about them.

The problem I have is that the rubber donut on the lower mount of one of the front shocks is not tight  :-[  It's so friggin' loose that it makes a slight clunk.  I also noticed that the welds that hold the mounts to the shock body are really wimpy.  Probably only about 1 cm long.

I think the problem with internet reviews is that folks go cheap and aren't honest with themselves about what they got so they try hard to justify how they saved $$.

Yea, just buy Bilsteins and be done with it...

1980sdga

Just an update. I emailed the seller and they sent out a new shock no questions asked. I got it in 2 days.

The car rides just right for me.  It may be a little stiff for some folks but I prefer a stiffer ride. I think they were $120 shipped for the set...

hans moleman

Can't be any worse than the KYBs I installed in mine. Typically under damped.

BWalker82

Great write up!  I just realized this is probably something I need to do.  I've got a lot of knocking and "reverb" over bumps.

-BW

1980sdga

Quote from: hans moleman on 14 May 2011, 07:10 AM
Typically under damped.

Quote

That describes it well.  Instead of "absorbing" they sort of "ping" .  Real springy feeling...

Just go back with what MB designed.

If you look at the Sensens next to the originals (They had the MB symbol on them)  you can see that they add to unsprung weight (I think that's right. please correct me if wrong) because the heavy half of the shock is DOWN on the sensens. I imagine that this would slow down suspension movement because of the weight.  I'll bet KYBs are similar.  MB designed it so that most of the weight of the shock was part of the chassis instead of the suspension.

Maybe some of you track/suspension gurus could chime in.