I have no shocks and have been tossing up about what to do. The brackets in the tube shock kits look a bit ordinary and I was thinking of just getting some tube shocks and making brackets myself when I saw these friction shocks at Speedway Motors. Painted black they wouldn't stand out and the bolt holes and arm legth look to be fairly much as stock A. Anyone tried them? http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Friction-Shocks,3799.html
I haven't used this particular style of friction shock. However, I've used the other style Speedway sells on several cars. I'm a big fan of friction shocks and would suggest that if you use them, play around with the adjustments.
I run original rebuilds on my roadster. I am very pleased with them and I like the look! I did not have a clear photo of rears but you can just them in the second photo.
This is similar to what I'm using. Got my set from Mike's Affordable Model A Parts but he no longer lists them. Sacramento vintage ford still has them in their catalog so they may still carry them. Not cheap but arms are the correct length & have the right bends for front & rear and includes dog bones. Tim
Yeah those look the goods Tim. If i don't find a set of rebuildable originals local soon I might give them a try. Thanks for the replies, John
IMO, all of the current friction shocks look like ****. Hartford repros are a possible exception, but I do not think they make any that would work on a Model A without modification. I had a pair of shocks mechanically rebuilt by Robert Paul of Yoder, Colorado...it took over a year (he's extremely backlogged), but they function perfectly. I believe he can supply you with a set (with a core charge)...his prices are reasonable. 719-478-5102 Tell him Gary from Texas sent you. Here they are after a few hours of filling pits, painting, blocking, and wet sanding. I'm pleased with them... Slick setup! Do they have any part or casting #'s on them? I'd like to experiment with a set, but am unsure which to buy...
The Speedway aluminum bodied shocks the O/P showed initially will work many times better if the bolt is replaced with a longer, hardened bolt, and a valve spring and retainer are used. The way they are set up, they have very little "adjustment" for stiffness. By using the spring as I suggest, you can adjust the stiffness by tightening of loosening the tension against the spring.
I have the polished version of the friction shocks you show in the pics on the front of my cabrio. They work well, and can be adjusted to how you like the feel. Need louvers hit on something you do need to think about. The bolt is an allen head and just sits in the shock body. When trying to adjust, it tends to turn when tightening of loosening the nut. I drilled the shock body, up from the bottom, threaded the hole and screwed a small bolt into the head of the all en bolt to keep it from turning. Its simpler than it sounds.
Slick setup! Do they have any part or casting #'s on them? I'd like to experiment with a set, but am unsure which to buy...[/QUOTE] I don't have a part # or anything. These came out of a pile of parts that were left over from my Dad's '30 chevy restoration project that he finished in 1975. He bought a parts car and stacked up all the left overs. I cut the loops off the fronts and welded on model A balls so I could use dog bones. (I found the dog bones in the pile of model A stuff. I am lucky dad never got rid of anything.) The rears are using the Chevy links but I had to shorten them. I don't have a picture of them. I will need to go to the shop and take a quick picture of the rears. The Filling station sells a rebuild kit for them. I know dodge and auburn and some other makes used these shocks through the '30s. There are several different configurations of them. Hope this helps.
I had the stock shocks rebuilt on my A heap with reverse eye leaf springs. It rode good for a while.... The shock arms would come loose on the square shaft, I would tighten them back up and they would come loose again. The stock Model A shocks were bottoming out inside the shock body, I should have shortened the rubber ball dogbone links to make up for the lower height from the reverse eye springs. Now I have the friction shocks like Tim B posted and love them, they all lined up and bolted right in. I wanted some like the Pearson bros coupe had or a set like HAMB'er CraftyB makes.
Il'l be reversing the spring eyes and removing a couple of leaves so Il'l watch for that if I use rebuilt stockers, but those TimB posted do look like the go. Thanks.
No matter which way you go Sacramento Vintage also has shorty dog bones for dropped front ends if you need some added clearance. I'll be following along. Plan is to perform similar surgery on my 29 Tudor this spring. Finally got the car straightened out mechanically & driving well late last fall. Now it's time to dip into the parts stash. Installing 33 axle, 32 spindles & perches, reverse eye spring, un-split A bone, & 35 wires. Keeping mechanical brakes since they're rebuilt. Full fendered & no chop.
Just to illustrate what I was talking about earlier, here is my set of friction shocks I made for the front of my T-Bucket. The Speedway shocks equipped this way with a tension spring really work very well, and the best part is that the are very adjustable to the ride and handling qualities you want, just at the turn of a wrench.
Those are nice pieces right there. I was going to suggest that if I did not have a set of originals that could be rebuilt and made to work properly that I would build my own. N.L. has driven my point home.
Awe, Pshawwww, those old things? Thanks '******! But his message is on point. Building these things are pretty easy, and my design could be used by cutting a base of 1/2 stock that would match the shape of the stock Model "A" shock with the mounting ears in place. The arms are just 1/4" 6061 aluminum that was cut out with a 19.00 Harbor Freight jig saw and a metal blade. If anybody on this thread want to see them, I have several pictures from making these that I'd be happy to post.
Well I sure don't want to see the damned old things. I am actually thinking about starting a hot rod shocks and shocks and springs thread later. I think it would be interesting to see what everyone has or has pics of in the line of old fashioned shocks, from friction to boingers.
I like the look of either the stock Model A's or those Delco's mentioned earlier if you are set on friction shocks.
My friction shocks are mounted to the bottom spring plate and it's obviously not the best place they could be, from a leverage stand point or for ease of adjustment. No room for a spring tensioner either. With some mods I plan for the front end, I hope to gain the room to put them on either side of the crossmember tube. NOW...heres the thing. I've noticed that many shocks use a long threaded rod that p***es completely thru the front crossmember tube from one side to the other and holds/tensions both shocks against the frame sides. Very simple to do...but...I'm thinking doing it that way will allow the outer friction material and plate to simply rock up and down with the shock lever and actually offer no friction. All slippage between the lever and the friction material would come from the lever and the inner friction material alone. With the threaded rod running right thru, there is no locking of the outer plates. Am I out to lunch on that or does it even matter? Do I even need to put friction material out there? I've thought about making the outer friction plate almost like a teardrop and bolting the pointy part to the frame so that the arm would slip on both pieces of friction material. Just seems the operation would be smoother somehow and less likely to squeeze out the material. Thoughts???
Pretty sure those Delco's are single acting (?) piston Hydraulic if I'm not mistaken. Later versions were double acting...in that they dampened on both extension and rebound.
Prototype I'm working on to sell. Tensioner is hidden, arms will be out or 1/4" or 3/8" and arm has four hole at end now.
Pork and ****** pinged me yesterday and said he is going to start a thread on friction shocks and vintage suspension bits and asked me to post them there. If he doesn't get around to it in the next few days I'll post 'em here.
You like the look of friction shocks,fine,but they are in need of adjustmint a lot,so don't get it as much as they need it=work ****py most of the time. I don't like them on anything but an old race car that had them before better came along. If I see them on a rod,it looks to me as if the builder fell into the pit of BS about how good friction shocks work*{for a few hr.]. I do like both tube an arm oil shocks.
I bought the J.C. Whitney friction shocks back in 1969, when I had the '29 A coupe. They didn't last a month, all four broken at the mounts to the frame. I always wished I had restored a set of stock shocks, but my coupe came without any - also without any roof, gl***, most wiring, etc. Shocks were pretty far down my priority list.
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