rear shock mounting

i'm planning on building a rear shock hoop like the one sold by http://www.crossenterprises.com/. ive done a search, but have found little info on drawbacks to mounting the shocks at such an increased angle and mounting them on the same side of the axle tube. what if any are the problems with doing this?

I'll let the suspension gurus tackle the angle part of your question, but the purpose of mounting one shock ahead of the axle and one behind is to control wheel hop and axle wrap-up during acceleration and braking.

I experienced this first-hand some years ago. I owned a 1968 AMC Javelin that was a late 1968 build. If any of you even remember the Javelin, you know that '68 was the first year. Mine was a 343 "Go Package" V-8 4-speed, and it really scooted. And it handled acceleration fairly well.

Fast forward a couple of years. I was getting into autocrossing more seriously and I wanted a vehicle I could flog on Sunday without worrying about getting to work on Monday. I was in a Javelin/AMX club, so brand was a no-brainer. I picked up another 343 Javelin 4-speed.

First time out I couldn't believe it was the same brand of vehicle. I was running my competition tires, but I couldn't keep the rear tires hooked up. During the following week I started digging, and found that my "new" acquisition was a very early build. My original Javelin had staggered shocks -- the "new" one did not. Fortunately, the upper mounting hole was there in the "frame" cross member above the axle, so by buying a new spring plate with the stud for the lower end of the shock it was an easy conversion. The difference was incredible.

All of which is a long way of recommending a traction bar of some kind if you're going to set up both shocks on the same side of the axle.

Increasing the angle just decreases the shocks effectiveness meaning you need to run a heavier valve rate.As far as I know most people use "shock spud" material completely thru so you can still mount the shock on either side of the hoop!

thompson97 said:

i'm planning on building a rear shock hoop like the one sold by http://www.crossenterprises.com/. ive done a search, but have found little info on drawbacks to mounting the shocks at such an increased angle and mounting them on the same side of the axle tube. what if any are the problems with doing this?

Click to expand...

Eagle covered the advantages of shocks that are staggard, so here's some thoughts on increasing the angle. The reason most people want to increase the angle (by leaning the top of the shock inward) is to allow the use of a longer shock, the goal being to increase travel. Funny thing is, though, that when the shock is mounted at a greater angle, a longer shock isn't needed because the shock travel decreases relative to the axle travel. So, more travel can be realized from the same length shock. But, because the shock travels less relative to axle travel the shock dampening decreases.....which is not something that is normally a goal. Also, the ability the shock has to resist side to side sway is decresed, also not a good thing. The more the shocks are leaning in at the top, the closer the tops of the shocks are to the pivot point around which the body rolls....sort of. So, stabilty and sway control decrease both because of the position of the shock, and because the decreased shock travel provides less dampening/resistance to sway. Ideally, a shock is mounted as straight up and as outboard as possible to provide the best control.

If you carefully pick the right length shock (compressed/extended) so that all of it's travel is used, you can get all the flex you need out of a 9"-10" travel shock in the rear. Back when ramp travel index was an important thing, I ramped 1175 with 9" travel RS9118 rear shocks, without any funny shackles or buggy leaf. A longer shock might be valuable for full droop if you like to prerun, and have the right set of leaves, but it's unnecessary for getting the amount of articulation that you need.

thanks guys. you pretty much confirmed my worst thoughts on the subject. i originally planned on doing this because i had purchsed the shocks before i had put my new 8.8 in there. i figured they'd be ok, but the raised shock mounts i have on the axle are a little much (not to mention the fact that i had welded my rear sway bar mounts to the unibody as bar pin eliminators when i put my first lift in). so now i have too much shock for my lift, and im not trying to use them as bumpstops. yesterday i heard an all too familiar clunk which could only be described as the same noise that i had heard to inspire the bar pin eliminators in the first place. so i thought i'd run the shock hoop idea through you guys. sounds like i might need to go with new shocks though...bummer. anyone need two adjustables?

You could try grinding off the sway bar mounts and going back to the bar pins......not a lot of room up there on the drivers side, though.

i've thought about that, but i broke two of the bolts in the unibody taking out the stock bar pins, and am not sure if i feel like re-tapping into that guage steel. so whats the story with heli-coils? i saw another post about header installation, and they seem to be popular. i dont know jack about them though. would they work in this situation?

thompson97 said:

i've thought about that, but i broke two of the bolts in the unibody taking out the stock bar pins, and am not sure if i feel like re-tapping into that guage steel. so whats the story with heli-coils? i saw another post about header installation, and they seem to be popular. i dont know jack about them though. would they work in this situation?

Click to expand...

You don't need heli-coils. Drill a hole into the broken bolts and back them out with an easy out......pretty simple, actually.

yeah, i did that before i put the sway bar mounts on there. i think my skills with the tap are sub-par, cuz they were worse than before. hense the bar pin eliminators (so to speak). i was hoping that with the added thickness of the 8.8 and the degree shims i have in there would counter the change in mounting points enough to run the shocks that came with my kit. no such luck. but i'd like to redo the spring mounts on the 8.8, or find a 44 so i can build my own setup with 4.88's (instead of 4.10). ridding myself of the need for the shims and utilizing anti-wrap perches. so...with all of that in mind, i think i need to get my axle situation hammered out first, then get some shocks of the appropriate length. i'll have to address this subject later.