Rear Shocks question?

[ggunter]

My car is a three link rear. I have seen pics of the rear shocks, including the manual, and in this forum, of the body of the shocks facing both ways. Up and down. The reason I'm asking is, I have my rear shocks installed with the body up at this time and the springs are hitting the welded bracket on the rear housing. Not by much, but they would start to rub the bkt over a short time. Does it matter which way they are facing?

[yahrt]

Yes it matters, one way they interfere as you have found, when flipped they are OK

[ggunter]

So body side down is ok?

[phileas_fogg]

Depends on the shock. The red Koni's are OK to mount either way, but the QA's require a specific orientation I think... I may have this backwards, so check with the shock manufacturer (or Mark Reynolds at Breeze; he sells both & will know right off the top of his head).


John

[edwardb]

The silver dual-adjustable Koni's that Factory Five offers as an upgrade also can only be mounted body down. Per Koni literature, the internal valving does not work properly when installed the other way. But red Koni's can be body either up or down. Doesn't matter. Whatever direction works best, e.g. best clearance, no interference, etc.

[NAZ]

The stock Mustang axle shock mounts can have fitment issues when using coilovers. An easy fix is to use a hole saw to remove some material that is causing the interference fit. I've done this but unfortunately did not photo document the mod but I'll try to explain it. If you look at the attached photo, the arrow points to the portion of the shock mount that causes fitment issues.

Use a hole saw just under the inside dimension of the width of the shock mount. Center punch a witness mark centered on the width of that bracket and down from the top half the diameter of the hole saw plus 3/16" and drill a pilot hole then carefully use the hole saw to drill through the bracket WITHOUT drilling into the axle tubes. You will end up with a half circle cut out of the shock bracket that will provide clearance for the coilover. Deburr the saw cut and touch-up paint.

139025

[ggunter]

Thanks NAZ, clearance cutting the rear is no issue, just want to know if the correct install is body up or down.

[yahrt]

Body down, otherwise springs hit as your describe

[rich grsc]

Body up is preferred, clearance the mount area. JMO

[NAZ]

If you have shocks that can be run inverted there may be a slight un-sprung weight advantage to running them inverted on your solid axle car. However, a street driver ain't gonna matter so body down if that makes it easier for you. But for those that want to run coilovers inverted and see some rubbing on the Mustang shock brackets, you might want to refer to post #6.

[ggunter]

Inverting the shocks solved the problem and its only going to be a street driver so that was an easy fix, just wanted to know if they could be flipped with no issues.