I was looking into changing the 12 year old white KYB gas adjust shocks out on my 53 Merc. When I started looking into replacing them I found out that they are still called gas adjust shocks but when did the KYB shock go grey in colour and when did they eliminate the three position adjustable ride settings?
I recently was looking at a KYB site, I think that Jeff posted a link to, that talked about them changing from white to silver, and advising there may be a timeframe when if you were ordering what you though was white may get to you in silver, or visa versa if the distributor had older stock.
I bought mine about a year ago from Amazon, and they are white, so it's gotta be a pretty recent change.
One way to find out guys: http://www.kyb.com/contact/technical-support/ +Post the answer if you get one.
I'm sure price would be different... but isn't there anyone else out there that makes a performance shock that could fit? Fox, Bilstien, QA1 etc. When I have bought Fox and King's for my offroad toys, you just need to know length, travel and weight. They come with different mounting options and custom valving. These guys with nice restomod or pro-touring style hotrods are most likely not using an Autozone or Napa shock would be my bet.
Well guys it is not the color so much that I was wondering about except that I would not want to run one grey and one white shock on the front of my ride. It is the fact that they are still called KYB gas adjust shocks and they are not an adjustable shock anymore. My old KYB's have three separate adjustment positions for ones personal preference of ride firmness and the new ones do not.
Went to www.kyb.com and for my 57 only showed their Excel-G shocks not sure if they're gas or not. Shiny black paint. www.partsgeek.com showed gas-a just in stock roughly $80- for all 4. On the KYB site the gas-a-just appear to be bright silver. While specific performance shocks might not be listed for our vehicles from other manufacturers cross referencing use might find some. KYB site shows not cross reference to say Bilstein but lists other vehicles that have same use.
answer from KYB today ''The only adjustable shocks we carry is a AGX line. All we carry for the 57 Ford Custom is in our Excel-G line. The only springs we sell are in our Strut-plus units''. Contacted them late last night and the answer was in my mailbox this morning. They promise 24hr response to all questions during work week and am impressed they actually delivered answers to my questions. now that been said, when I was building my 51 coupe happened to have a pair of 3way kyb shocks originally meant for my 74 LUV pickup. pulled one out of the box and sure looked like they would work and they did. so if someone had an old paper catalog from say Monroe and searched for another application with correct length and stroke there may well be one out there that would work on our cars.
Thanks for the info. I pulled out my old rusty KYB shocks last night and replaced them with the new silver grey ones. The old ones are completely shot but what I found interesting is that the rears extend out to 22" full length and compressed down to 12". I wish I could get a number off them but they are so pitted from rust I was not able to find any reference numbers. The new shocks were hell to get on as I had to jack the diff up from the center quite high in order to get the rubbers, washers and nut on. I am sure there is no way to get the tire off to change it with out completely unhooking the dam shocks as Jeff had mentioned in an earlier post. I did not have to do this with the my old shocks. I simply had to jack the car up high and let the air out of the tires and they would just squeeze and I mean squeeze out of each wheel opening. Now there is no way I can get them out deflated unless I unbolt the shocks completely from the bottom.
The '57 guys have the same problem....although the suspension on '57's is different than older models, the issue is the same. Many of them have to call for a wrecker if they get a flat tire on the road. Of course, this is due to us wanting oversize tires on the back. I'm wondering why, in your case, the new shocks have a shorter travel than the old ones. One '57 forum member a few years ago experimented with shocks and finally ended up using shocks designed for '56 p***enger cars. The shock gave him enough travel so that he no longer has to loosen anything to change his tires. There was some concern with the shock posibly bottoming out on potholes, but he claims to have aggresively tested the car on rough roads with no issues or damage to shock mounts.
I've got mine for about 1 1/2 month(?!) I didnt yet had to remove the rear tires, but I dont think there will be an issue. Is it because i'm using 205/70/15 michelin radials? I recall original fomocos and new kybs are just the same size. I recall talking to stichy about that.
Thriftmaster is there any possibility that you received the wrong shocks ? Have you double checked part number on box with KYB catalog numbers ? Mistakes like that can happen with any supplier.
I double checked the boxes the rear shock came in and they match the sticky info on the forum but I have not had a chance to get back to the car and cross reference the actual part number of the shocks. But first chance I get i will do that. I don't know if it makes a lot of difference but I am running a 53 Merc and it was built on the Ford platform from the factory. I am running 215-75R-15 tires on the back. I have to deflate the tires in order to clear and I mean just clear the wheel wells if I want to take them off. With these new KYB shocks I will have to unbolt them completely at the spring hanger to drop the suspension enough to get the tires off now. Do you have the 10" or the 11" rear drums?
I had this same issue when I installed new shocks, I used Gabriel gas shocks all around turns out the gas shocks were about 1 1/2" shorter in extended length than the OEM Motorcrafts so I added these: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/m...Gpegc7ltgvLRZD1GGy2App4ulXSyFiJbh4xoCTMjw_wcB they allowed the axle to drop just enough to change the tire.
Jeff I will do some double checking of the shock part numbers first and if all is correct then I will be checking into a set of shock extensions. Thanks for the heads up.
With all this confusion, what is the recommended shock that is available today for a '53 Customline that has Aerostar springs that will provide a good smooth ride with good handling?
You will find that information here just below the master cylinder video: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/faq-sticky.897329/
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