Replacment/aftermarket Shocks

I got the Kit today, it’s got all the air lines and connections as well as a bunch of diffrent sized spacers that go into the Eyelits. So if your using a large or small mounting bolt you can put the right sized spacer to fit the bolt your using.

Can’t wait for a performance report.

I decided to order a 2nd set for fronts and swap them all out. I figured unless the front and rears had the same spring rate it might give me false feedback. I will swap out just the rears first and then take it for a spin and then Swap out the fronts and see if they make a difference.

Here we Go I got all 4 shocks

Ok I got the Rear shocks installed. They were super easy to install, I can tell you right away that the differance is Night and Day as far as softness and shock travel. The stock shocks don’t even seem to work compaired to the new ones. Example if you jack the car off the ground in the rear and lower it with the stock shocks there is zero sag or shock movment. The New shocks with about 40 lbs air pressure have about 3/4 of a inch shock sag, just like what you would expect when you jack up and lower down your car. The weight of the car soaks up a bit of the shocks travel. The amount of Sag can be adjusted via adding air.

With the stock shocks I would climb into the center of the car and bounce up and down and the suspension would barley move. Now with these New shocks the car actually moves up and down like its suposed to. You can feel the rebound and dampining show down the return slow things down so it’s just not a Softer spring creating a bouncy ride. You can add air to stiffen the travel. I put 70lbs of air in the rear and it seems to give it a ride that would be great with a fully loaded car. I moved forward to work on the front shocks and I need to weld on a new shock mount.

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So this is the deal with the front. I have the MZ motorsports 9.5 HP motor that is quite larger then the stock 3.5 hp motor. The 9.5 is longer then the stock motor and sticks out about 5 inches further and therefor you need to relocate the shocks. It requires you to move the shocks forward.

I moved the stocks shocks forward and have been running around on them "relocated " for some time now. When I went to install the New Air shocks I found out that I need to weld on a new top mount shock location. This new location will be about 4 inches in front of the stock location and a few inches higher.

This new location will be based off of the optimal ride height. I’m gonna figure out the exact amount of sag the new shocks have with 40 lbs air and calculate that position where the new shocks mount. I want the tires to have zero camber when the car is loaded with 2 people in it and sitting on the ground. Making a completely new mount will give me the ability to mount the new shocks at what ever height Is best.

I’m REAL interested in what your setup will do to handling/stability. When are you going to have it on the road?

I finally got a chance to take the car for a spin. I’m happy to report the rear shocks are a night and day difference ( I still don’t have the dents installed) but it’s going to the fab shop today.

The min I got in the car and backed up you could see and feel the rear end rise or lift up, Just like in a normal car when your reverse kind of fast. The shocks are so much more active and react at the smallest bump. This is with 35 psi in the shocks now With more Air I’m sure they would become still get and less active over small bumps. Max is 70psi.

I can tell you that the 1 thing I did to make the ride quality bad was installing the Low profile tires and heavy car style 17 inc wheels.

It’s been a long time since I took a ride in a stock gem. And when I did I was suprised at the ride quality. The stock tires take up a lot of shock and work in hand or even make up for such hard stock shocks. The car is much quieter on bumpy spots because the car is not Bouncing down the road.

My test ride was a Bare car with out seats in it. I can only imagine the ride quality with seats and the front shocks. It’s gonna be Night and Day

Off to the Fab Shop

Did you ever consider cutting a coil or 2 to free up the ride?

Nope, Never thought of that but that may help some people. I think 50% of my ride quality Issues are self generated. If you have normal profile tires I don’t think the ride quality is all that bad. As soon as you start bolting up Car style wheels you start having ride quality issues.

#1 Car style wheels are a lot heaver then Gem wheels when you add all that sprung weight to the Suspension you can create issues. Example the stock shock was designed to move a wheel and tire that only weighed a few pounds. A car style wheel has got to be 3 or 4 times the weight of a stock gem. That extra sprung weight is going to effect you

Got the front shocks mounted up yesterday.

Neat

Grant

Building 2 more 2 to 1 steering gear conversions. Are you interested?

Rodney

Yup count me in

$250 exchange plus shipping. End of the month.

Ok well I had a chance to drive around and I can tell you the shock have made a huge differance in the ride. I just took a spin in a friends THINK and they tend to ride a lot better then the GEMs and I can say the ride I’m my GEM blows away the ride in his Think. The car feel firmly planted on the road over uneven bumpy ground. Before the car felt like it would skip over the bumps.

I would like to try and find a stiffer spring for the front Air shocks. The ride seems great Now but I’m at the Max air psi in the front and I’m afraid when the car is fully loaded it might be a little much. I will start to look. the Air shocks I’m running have a spring rate of 140-180 pounds per square inch. I’m thinking a 160-220 would be the ticket for the front. That way I wouldn’t have to run much air and if need be I would have more load capacity.

Load it and try it first. Also your shocks are conservativly rated and can stand 20%+ more air pressure.

@grantwest it’s been a while now since your air shock conversion; I’m interested to hear how happy you are with the air shocks? I have a two-seater shortbed truck with a LifePo conversion, eliminating the front batteries [all 25 are located under the seat]. I do carry a lot of tools around in the back end tool box i added, so I’m thinking the rear shocks are ok. But I’m considering a pair of the Precision 416A’s for my front end only since I’m getting a LOT of front-end bounce on the bad streets around here. I’m thinking they will help soften the ride but I’m concerned about how they’ll affect tire clearance. FYI, I’ve got ITP ss312- 14"x6" wheels all around carrying Kumho tires which at times rub the fire wall on certain turns. So I’m wondering how your front-mount relocation is working out: do you recommend it as a way to give a bit more clearance? My motor isn’t in the way but I’d consider it if I can get a bit more wheel clearance on the anterior of the wheel. I’m also thinking I may need to add more weight up front: it feels like the front end is too light causing some traction problems on a bounce and some spinning on steeper hills. So perhaps I’ll add another tool box up front and replace the bonnet… Any insight or ideas based on your experience would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Just converted to lithium with Mike/ LithiumGods and without the old battery weight the ride is very stiff. Where did you get the aftermarket air shocks?

Check out this thread. I ordered the same ones @Tyson_Davis put together. So far so good. Although I’m in the middle of a bunch of things and only have the front ones on