Customs Bagged Merc Shock absorber question

Hey all. I have a 51 Mercury. Bagged about 10 years ago. No front clip, all Merc. It lays frame so it already drives pretty low. Over the years the ride has gotten pretty harsh. Been thinking would softer shocks help? Has anyone had a similar situation? If so, what did you go with? Make or part #? Thanks for reading, Bumpstick

 

You can try softer shocks, adjustable dampening shocks would be one way to make changes to the dampening rates quickly to see what helps. Normally air bag setups have much less internal dampening than the leaf springs that they replace, and therefore typically need stiffer shocks.

What is the condition of your suspension bushings? Worn bushings can definitely cause a car to ride harsher.

 

One other thought. Have you changed the ride height? In other words, does the car ride further into the suspensions travel than it used to, and is it possible that you are smacking the bump stops? Are there proper bump stops, or are the shocks or some other component acting as bump stops and the suspension comes to a rapid and harsh stop under jounce?

 

Interesting and timely question from my perspective as tomorrow I'm due to be looking into a buddy's car, new to him, with a harsh ride on air. I'd not got the shocks in my sights as a possible problem, but makes sense that they could be, but I thought shocks got looser / softer with age, not stiffer/ harder? Hhhmmm. Will try the suspension with the shocks removed and proceed from there. Any car running on air should ride like a Caddy or Roller surely? I imagine bags that are underspec'd for the weight would need to be inflated more, giving a more solid ride? But that wouldn't change over time, wouldn't?

Chris

 

Air springs can certainly be made to ride like a Caddy, but the entire suspension system must be engineered to work with the spring, shocks, bushings, tires, unsprung vs. sprung mass, etc. It all plays a roll (no pun intended!).

Air springs do not have a linear rate curve like most mechanical springs. They typically have a fairly linear section through the middle of the stroke, but the spring rate changes dramatically at the limits of travel. Running the air spring towards either end of it's stroke can cause an uncomfortable ride and poor handling as well.

 

My car rides stiff/bouncy on air but that is due to the smaller bags I installed. I need to run a higher pressure. Bigger bags planned down the road but got it on air for now with the small bags like I wanted.

 

Could be hitting on the bump stops, that's what was happening on my 51'

 

Thanks everyone! Plenty to think about.