The rear shocks on my 73 have coil over springs on them. I don't know if they caused it or if it had air shocks at one time, but one of them punched through the floor. Does anyone make a patch for that or do I have to fab my own? Also do the coil over shocks lift at all? I want them off but if it lowers the car my tires won't fit.

 

im not sure if anyone makes that part might have to try one of the mustang junkyard links in the faq. the shocks are a new one on me if they have punched through its had airshocks or your springs are shot.alot of people put airshocks on insted of replacing the springs its cheaper but on a unibody car thay punch through.

 

As you found out, air shocks and coilovers will destroy the upper shock mount.

They don't make repro panels, unfortunately. You can probably fab the piece pretty easily, and make something a bit more stout than the factory. If not, let me know and I can cut that section out of one of my parts cars, though they will likely show some wear.

 

The car was not designed to carry both the static corner weight and the dynamic shock loading through that point, so I'm not at all surprised that it failed.

I'd make up a cardboard template and use that to fab a piece out of heavier stock. You'll wantthe "patch" to be large enough to spread the load so you won't find the next failure to be tearing of the OE metal around the patch. Myself, I'd add some sort of additional stiffening as well. And I would absolutely do both sides now.

I am assuming that these "coilovers" are a form of overload/helper spring and not a coilover in the racing sense that completely replaces the leaf springs and requires a separate linkage arrangement to locate the axle. In this case, they are increasing your rear ride height at least slightly (unless they are rattling around loose when the car is unloaded and at rest). They are also having a couple of effects with respect to your handling, so if you remove them you can expect the car to "feel" different. How does it behave now, and what about this might you want to improve? How hard do you drive it in the turns/corners/curves?

Is your tire clearance issue due to tire height or width, or wheel width/offset? Would you give up some tire size? Is custom bodywork an option?

Norm

 

Colorado; Thanks for the offer, I will try to fab a patch and if that doesn't work get in touch with you.

"Norm" ( Cheers voice )

I would say they are overloads because they don't look large enough hold the car up by themselves. I want to replace them because at high speed the car has a lot of bounce in the rear and it feels unstable. I am worried about the hieght because I have tall tires to keep the side pipes off the ground. Later I may take them off but for now they do get a lot of looks.

Thanks for all your help.

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As long as the leaves are still in place, they are overloads.

That "bounce" is almost certainly because there isn't enough rebound damping left in the shocks to control the combined spring rate of the OE leaves plus the overloads, so the car movementis noticeably "overshooting" in the upward direction. New performance shocks should fix that, and I suspect that some sort of adjustable shock could be set to better suit the combined spring rate.


Norm

 

I would replace the leaf springs to get the ride height I wanted, then put on shocks that suit the car. Check the mustang suppliers, many options are available. Also if you are in a decent size city you can probably find a spring specialty shop that can put together exactly what you want for less than you would think.

73 Sportsroof it would be really nice if you could post some pictures of the failed mounts. There is always the crowd that says coil over and air shocks are ok and I would like to have a picture to demonstrate the problem. Hopefully we can persuade others not to make this mistake.

 

This was the reason I never liked the coil over 'load-adjuster' shocks that were so popular back in the 60's/70's. Have you ever looked at Heidt's 4-link rear suspension? Bolts in, fully adjustable with panhard bar and coil-overs mounted to a cross bar. Everything (including frame connectors and drive shaft loop) cost about $1300.00.
It has to be better than our leaf springs.

 

I will see if I can get some pics later it is in the shop now.

My friend put the 4 link on his, but he hasn't had it on the road yet. Might try that later.

 

I pulled the shocks off, but I still need to fab a new mount. Here are some pix of the old ones. The first you can't see the hole behind the POs so called fix and the others are with the shock removed.

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