Rear Shocks

I'm looking for some new rear shocks. I've pretty much decided on Afcos. Now just have to decide on the length. The existing ones are 14 1/2" and when you look at the picture the shocks are mounted fairly high on the mounts and can be lowered 2". Could I or should I get the next longer shocks ( 16 1/2" I think) so I can get the mounting point lower ?
And lastly...any Afco dealers on board ?

Thanks for the advice,
John

The longer ones sure make it easier to get a big tire off the car if they are way up in the wheel wells, Afco's are a damn good shock. Only dealer I know is Mike Duffy, I can shoot him an email for you as he's damn hard to get ahold of for most, but I got a batphone I can reach him on lol.

I like the idea of getting the longest shock possible on there. You gonna go with single or double adjustable? I live 2 miles from AFCO and can normally get a pretty good deal on most anything, let me know if I can help.

if i had it to do over and had the room i'd get the longer shock.my car is real low for a ladderbar setup and i did'nt have room but it would be a big + for the rear tire removal.the ladderbar cars dont need much travel down so you may even run a 14"spring on the long shock if it come to it.i realy like the strange shocks.

I got your pm, you'll have to use a different lower shock mount, but it should work with the brackets on your housing. If you would get a pic of the top of the shock and spring mounting you have, there may need to be a bit of fab work done if yours is like I think you have it.

Using the longer than normal C/O shock is fine as long as you truly have the room for one at the actual ride height. Last thing you want to do with an expensive shock is bottom it out & possibly hammer the internals if the bump-stop splits/fails.

The "average/normal/most used" C/O shock length is around the 15.5" to 16" range fully extended, with somewhere around a 13.25" to 14.5" suggested installed height at actual ride height (depending of course on the brand used).

And the "longer" C/O shocks are around the 19" range fully extended, with somewhere around a 15.5" to 16" suggested installed height at actual ride height (depending of course again on the brand used).

One thing you should think about checking before going to a longer rear C/O shock (to make getting big slicks off the car easier) is if the driveshaft will be hitting the ladder bar or 4-link bottom crossmember before the longer shocks are fully extended (like when on jack stands).

Dave, thanks for the tip on checking the driveshaft hitting the diagonal bar. I don't need the longer shocks as I have no problem removing or installing my slicks. I've just always heard use the longest you can. That just might be a 4 wheel drive thing to help to keep them cool.

Thanks again

richter69 wrote:I got your pm, you'll have to use a different lower shock mount, but it should work with the brackets on your housing. If you would get a pic of the top of the shock and spring mounting you have, there may need to be a bit of fab work done if yours is like I think you have it.

I'll look tonight at the mounting points but, I thought Afco had a wider bearing (1.5") for this application.

Thanks again

What's wrong with his mounts?

Most I've seen is you use some equal width spacers to center the shocks spherical end on the bolt.

OK...I looked at the top mount and it's basically a piece of C-channel more or less ( S&W race car back half ). Shouldn't be a problem bolting the Afcos up to it as I see. I'll just have to get them with 1.5" eyelet bearings top n bottom.
As far as the driveshaft hitting the diagonal bar I forgot to even look at that when I had it jacked up....was changing the oil also.
D'oh
I'll look tomorrow

Thanks again

jbozzelle wrote:What's wrong with his mounts?

Most I've seen is you use some equal width spacers to center the shocks spherical end on the bolt.

mine came with them.......

John Myrick wrote:............checking the driveshaft hitting the diagonal bar.............

Actually I was talking about the driveshaft possibly hitting the ladder bar (or 4-link) crossmember at/before full shock extension, and not the diagonal link. Especially with a 2x3 crossmember, or a crossmember without a driveshaft dip. But I guess also checking the diagonal link for d/s clearance at full extension is an idea too. The driveshaft is one thing you really don't want to be banging into any chassis structures.



There are a few different C/O shock spherical bearing total widths out there, some are...........

(A) C/O bearings having no raised misalignment bushing seats on the spherical ball with a .500" wide ball width, and a total installed width of 1.00" when combined with two .250" wide misalignment bushings.

(B) C/O bearings having 2 fully built-in misalignment bushings attached to the spherical ball it's self (no separate misalignment bushings are needed) usually having a total installed width of 1.00".

(C) C/O bearings having 2 very small raised built-in misalignment bushing seats on the spherical ball it's self (I forget the spherical ball width on this one). When combined with two .250" wide misalignment bushings this C/O bushing layout has a total width of something like 1.125" or 1.250". These C/O bearings will fit a 1.00" wide shock bracket if thinner misalignment bushings are used instead of the .250" wide bushings, (I think the thinner ones are something like .180" wide).

I haven't ever had to used the C/O bearings with the built-in misalignment bushings having a total width of 1.50", never saw the need.

I dont think the wider body of the afcos will fit through those brackets he has that incorporate the spring pad into the bracket itself. I'm sure it could be made to fit, but those lower bracket kits are cheap lol.

Jon, I now understand what your talking about. I dont think I'll be using the spring cup holders on the Afcos as they have thier own.

Your lower bracket looks to be multi piece. Remove the shock bolt and I bet the spring cup falls off and you're left with the lower mount for the Afcos. Had the same lower setup on mine.

jbozzelle wrote:Your lower bracket looks to be multi piece. Remove the shock bolt and I bet the spring cup falls off and you're left with the lower mount for the Afcos. Had the same lower setup on mine.

Exactly correct

Jon....your making me think and it hurts my head LOL

ok its hard to see in the pic, they looked to be one piece. I had some years ago that were I just assumed these were also lol

But you still need to rework the upper mounts or ???

Ok, remeasured the shock mounts...1" wide not the 1.5"
Front frame mount where the driveshaft loop is, plenty of clearance.
Diagional bar has 2" clearance from driveshaft to bar
Existing shocks are 15.5" total length extended
I think the 16.5" Afco double adjustables with the standard bearings and 110lb springs will be the right deal.....thoughts ??

John Myrick wrote:.........and 110lb springs will be the right deal.....thoughts ??.........

It's hard to say, as always every car/combo is different. What spring rate is on it now?

A 110 lb rear spring might be a little light if your 69 is a back-half or mini tub car in the 2700 to 3000 lb area. But then again front/rear weight percentages can also play a part too. Usually as the nose weigh percentage increases a given amount over the rear percentage, the correct rear spring rate can decrease a given amount vs what would be the "expected" spring rate. In a lot of cases I would expect to see something somewhere in the 130 lb rear spring range if it is a back-half/mini tub around the 2700-3000 lb neighborhood.

I usually see the lighter 80 to 110 lb rear spring range on full chassis cars that are somewhere around the 50/50 weight bias range, and are also somewhere around the 2100 to 2500 lb total weight range. But again every car/combo is different. You won't know for sure what spring rate it actually wants until you try a spring rate (whatever it might be) and see what happens to the shock's installed center-to-center height vs the ride height. And getting "real" drag shocks in double adjustable vs the single adjustable is always a good idea if the budget allows it. More adjustability is always more-gooder.


On a side note take a look at your diagonal link clevis(s). In the one pic is looks like the front clevis is rotated backward and could possibly put the diagonal link rod-end in a bind at some point in the suspension travel. You want both clevis to be in line with the bottom bar of the ladder bars and/or in line with the diagonal link's centerline while the car is at actual ride height.

I have 125's on the rear of mine, 3078 combined weight, 55.1% on the front and 44.9% on the rear.

Installed the Afcos yesterday. Went with the 16.5" w/ 125lb springs. Starting off at 6 clicks on compression and full soft on rebound as per Afco's recommendations.
What determines the compression height of the spring ? Is it for ride height ? Or what ?

Thanks

just get it where the ride weight is close to the middle, but it dont have to be dead on. I wouldnt go full soft on the ext, give it a few clicks.

Ok thanks