Suspension Rattle Frustration

[Icarus]

Eddie has a good deal on Ford OEM air shocks...

 

[thaywood]

Eddie has a good deal on Ford OEM air shocks...

How good?

Are you talking about "American Air Suspension"? $435 for ONE front air shock

Holy CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sapperfire]

Man I need to go start snatching air springs off JY Marks

 

[thaywood]

Man I need to go start snatching air springs off JY Marks

That's not a bad idea. I need to look up some u-pull-it yards around my area. I don't know of any right off the top of my head. The junk yards I have used around here won't let you go out in the yard. You tell them what you want and they get it for you.

 

[slowmkviii]

True. OEM air SHOCKS (Mark VIII's don't have McPherson struts) .

You must mean air spring over gas shock cause the mark never came with air shocks.

 

[thaywood]

You must mean air spring over gas shock cause the mark never came with air shocks.

That's exactly right "Air shock" is just shorter and easier to say Or you could call it an "Air Suspension Shock Assembly" like Ford does

 

[Icarus]

Ford also calls them Springs. At least thats what my Ford receipts says.
They are refered to as struts in the Ford manual I know as well. So basically even Ford doesnt know what they are

 

[thaywood]

Ford also calls them Springs. At least thats what my Ford receipts says.
They are refered to as struts in the Ford manual I know as well. So basically even Ford doesnt know what they are

Ford knows what they are:



Also:



From a Ford service manual. I've personally never seen any literature from Ford that calls them "struts". I think the engineers at Ford know the difference between a strut suspension and an SLA suspension. But I could be wrong. One never knows...

 

[Sapperfire]

You'd also think they knew better than to use plastic for an intake, plus combining a coolant crossover into the same piece ...but refference a mid 90s Gran Marq and you'll see otherwise

 

[thaywood]

You'd also think they knew better than to use plastic for an intake, plus combining a coolant crossover into the same piece ...but refference a mid 90s Gran Marq and you'll see otherwise

Oh I know! My mom's '97 Cougar 30th Anniversary Edition's plastic crossover tube cracked while we were on the 220 bypass going 70+mph. That wasn't fun. Had to have it towed to the stealership to get a new intake. It was under warranty, thank goodness. Thankfully, there was no damage to the engine. That was over 10 years ago and she's still driving the car today. But Ford isn't the only company that uses plastic intakes. It's pretty much standard now on a lot of cars, unfortunately. But the McPherson strut/SLA debate isn't based upon opinion or typographical errors or lack of knowledge (well, maybe that). The two suspension types are distinctly different. The Mark VIII has an SLA front suspension, therefore, by definition, it does not use struts.

 

[1BadMoJoe]

A peaskey sweak or rattling thunk turning?

I'm justing going to have to ask...When the lower shock asembly bolt and nut through the L.ower C.ontrol A.rm was reasembled what bolt was put back in its place???
This is a common to replace as needed and available Metric Bolt...
is the same bolt before repair still there after repair or is that clunking from this worn/wollowed shank bolt sloping around inthe new LCA bushing?
Is this a new bolt/nut set up or was the old bolt recycled...

Could be anything, Time to strap and tye up a chair on the nose of that Cameltoe...Like in that MadMax movie...

 

[thaywood]

I can't remember exactly...but I think it's either an 18mm or 22mm bolt. You can re-use the bolt and nut when installing new LCA's. If the lower shock mount bushing is worn enough to cause a rattle, you most likely need new LCA's. It's a lot easier to just replace the whole LCA than to press teh bushing out and press a new one in. Plus if that bushing is bad, most likely the other bushings as well as the ball joint are bad too.