Seeking Recommendations for Heavy Duty Front Shocks

[TomO]

"Stock" could have been 390#, 440#, or 700# that I know of. And it doesn't necessarily go like one would expect - allegedly wagons tended to get 440# front coils, but mine had 390s when I got it. Fortunately, it's easy to measure your spring to verify what you've got.

I don't know if it's possible to identify parts from the build sheet codes, but I still have the build sheet and these are the codes for the front suspension:

SHOCKS........................CODE
front.............................V
rear..............................3

SPRING LOCATION..........CODE
front left.........................SAP
front right.......................NAT
rear left..........................SHU
rear right........................SHU

SWAY BAR.....................CODE
front..............................YR
rear...............................W

HANDLING PACKAGE CODE = 2

[stinkydogfilms]

Costly yes but well worth the money

On the 1991 GM I put Bilstein shocks all around. Well worth the money. They are absolutely awesome. With the crazy bumpy patched up roads here, I knew that if I went with a better known name brand at a lesser price point I would probably replace them at some point in the future. Probably near future. I am confident these will last the lifetime of the car. They may ride too hard for some. When you push down they hardly go down at all. The car with Energy Suspension front bushings, new ball joints and the 245 60 15 BFG tires has it handle like a champ. Very firm, but has great response. No lean at all in the corners. Just my 2 coins thrown in the mix.

[zoomie]

X2 on the KYB police shocks i have a set in the rear and they are amazing. ill be putting them up front as well. along with limo springs.

[Ike Clanton]

Gabriel Ultras -- now that you mention it, I believe that's the shock that the tire store put on the front of my car a couple of years ago. They were definitely an improvement over the blown out shocks that were on the car at the time, but I've realized that they just don't have as much dampening (i.e. "firmness") as I would like.

The Gabriel Ultras are the higher-line shock, and the cheaper (red paint, used to be called Red Ryder) Gabriels are MUCH more firm than the Ultras. The red ones have a new brand name but I forget what it is right now. You would think the costlier Ultras would offer more control than the cheap red ones, but they do NOT.

I have the red ones on the rear and the Ultras on the front, and just as you described, the Ultras just don't have enough damping, especially over big whoop-de-doos.

The issue that I have with the red ones (and I have had a different Town Car with them on the front) is that while they do offer that nice, firm damping, they do so ALL THE TIME. Big bumps, little, bumps, whatever, they're firm as hell. They clearly are a primitive shock and have just one damping rate no matter the wheel position, no matter the rate of movement. Because they are so one-sided by nature, it seems like they'd be a lot better suited to some kind of sporty car. They're relentlessly firm. But for the price, they WILL firm the feel up nicely. I am probably going to put a set of the reds on the front because the Ultras are JUST a little too mooshy, assuming I can talk VatoZone into swapping my Ultras for the red flavor under the warranty or whatever.

[Ike Clanton]

Gabriel Ultras -- now that you mention it, I believe that's the shock that the tire store put on the front of my car a couple of years ago. They were definitely an improvement over the blown out shocks that were on the car at the time, but I've realized that they just don't have as much dampening (i.e. "firmness") as I would like.

The Ultras are the higher-line shock, and the cheaper (red paint, used to be called Red Ryder) Gabriels are MUCH more firm than the Ultras. You would think the costlier Ultras would offer more control than the cheap red ones, but they do NOT.

I have the red ones on the rear and the Ultras on the front, and just as you described, the Ultras just don't have enough damping, especially over big whoop-de-doos.

The issue that I have with the red ones (and I have had a different Town Car with them on the front) is that while they do offer that nice, firm damping, they do so ALL THE TIME. Big bumps, little, bumps, whatever, they're firm as hell. They clearly are a primitive shock and have just one damping rate no matter the wheel position, no matter the rate of movement. Because they are so one-sided by nature, it seems like they'd be a lot better suited to some kind of sporty car. They're relentlessly firm. But for the price, they WILL firm thee fell up nicely. I am probably going to put a set on the front because the Ultras are JUST a little too mooshy.

[packman]

Which shocks should I use for the setup in my CV? I got the Speedway 925# front springs and Speedway 175# in the rear. I plan to upgrade the front and rear bushings to polygraphite in the near future. The car is fairly stable with the Monroe Sensa-Tracs, but I want to upgrade to something better when I rebuild the frontend.


Packman

[alchemist]

On the 1991 GM I put Bilstein shocks all around. Well worth the money. They are absolutely awesome. With the crazy bumpy patched up roads here, I knew that if I went with a better known name brand at a lesser price point I would probably replace them at some point in the future. Probably near future. I am confident these will last the lifetime of the car. They may ride too hard for some. When you push down they hardly go down at all. The car with Energy Suspension front bushings, new ball joints and the 245 60 15 BFG tires has it handle like a champ. Very firm, but has great response. No lean at all in the corners. Just my 2 coins thrown in the mix.

+1 on the Bilsteins

[TomO]

Almost a year gone by now and I finally got around to putting a pair of shocks on the front. I went with the KYB GR2's and they make a world of difference. I went with the KYB's because they were about the most economically priced of the shocks that would give the performance that I wanted.