aftermarket air bag/load asist bags

[marquisman]

the old man has these in the rear coils of his 1985 colony park(my wagons twin lol) and i think they are the cats ass.


my wagon is a tow pack car but, its lacking suspention assist. now, i can get em from summit for a real good price but, iv never dealt with these when it comes to installation. has anyone installed a set on somethin? do you have to remove the spring? iirc, there isent much access on the top or botom of the spring. it would be sweet if you can just spread open the spring and slip em in lol

[marquisman]

anyone? lol

[sly]

no experience here... sorry.

[1987cp]

Is that the Firestone kit where the bags install inside the coil springs? I know mrltd was talking about those at one point. I want to say he had a set on the Family Truckster, or did at one time.

Myself, I have a set of Monroe MaxAirs (I think Thain does too, either that or the Gabriel Skyjacker), and they work OK for a little extra load assist, but I kind of feel like they leave something to be desired, plus if you go my route you don't exactly have a lot of choices with respect to your shock damping.

[marquisman]

well, like i said, the old mans 85 colony park has them bags in the coilspring. and compared to GMGT with air shocks, i like the ride of the 85 colony park, since it retains the heavy duty shocks. id like to get a set for both my station wagon and my lincoln. only thing is, id love to cheat when it comes to install lol

[1980c10]

The rear spring come out of these cars super easy. Jack it up pull the wheels off take the shocks loose from the axle then have a buddy stand on the brake drum, and that side should drop down far enough for the spring to pretty much fall out.

[1987cp]

^^ helps a lot to remove the swaybar, if so equipped.


Not surprising that airbags plus shocks you like would ride better than air shocks. My MaxAirs were a ride improvement when I first got them, but that was going from worn-out SensaTracs, which IMO suck rather badly. Yanking those shocks from the wagon and putting them on the P72 again netted a ride improvement, but that time it was over worn-out Gabriel Red Ryders, so neither case is a great point of comparison.

[marquisman]

thing is, dont the rear springs tapper in coil towards the top and bottom? i cant remember if they are like the front springs, open all the way through

[1980c10]

Yes they are double pig tail. Aka smaller at the top and bottom.

[marquisman]

so then im back to the question...how the hell do they get installed?lol

[Glen]

When all else fails read the manual!

[1987cp]

so then im back to the question...how the hell do they get installed?lol

I'm assuming that when the bags are deflated, it's relatively easy to tuck them inside the springs?

[sly]

looks like the plastic covers are the real issue though. I wonder if those are flexible much. It may require squeezing between the last full coil and the first on the pigtail of the spring after removing all tension from the spring. And that's IF the plastic is flexible enough to squeeze in there.

[1987cp]

after removing all tension from the spring

I was assuming the spring would be removed before attempting to insert the airbag .....

[sly]

heh true... which would remove all tension