Air strut testing?

[quickblue302]

So my mark has 126k on the struts, holds air just fine but slams and rides awful "I think the shock potion is froze". At pick n pull I found a 95 carriage top with 87k. I was wondering if grabbing those struts will be an improvement over mine, Is there any way to test the shock part of the strut?

 

[izackary]

Other than the usual rebound test of pushing down near the shock tower to see the car move and settle, I can only guess taking the shock off the car, with the solenoid removed, and just compress the thing into the ground...

 

[chris2523]

That's exactly what I had in mind..

 

[thaywood]

So my mark has 126k on the struts, holds air just fine but slams and rides awful "I think the shock potion is froze". At pick n pull I found a 95 carriage top with 87k. I was wondering if grabbing those struts will be an improvement over mine, Is there any way to test the shock part of the strut?

With 126k miles, the hydraulic portion of the AIR SHOCK (Mark VIII's don't have McPherson struts ) is probably toast. Sounds like it's time for new air shocks. Do they make a "knocking" or "clunking" noise over bumps? If so, most likely the shock is worn out. If it rides rough and slams(?)...I'm assuming that means that it bottoms out over bumps and/or hills, then the shocks are worn out. If you can find some good used ones or afford new ones, thats what I'd do. As far as testing the air shock, just compress it and let it rebound. Usually there should be a fair amount of resistance on the compression and it should rebound slowly to the fully extended position. If you compress it and it doesn't rebound, it's junk.