tires and wheels Multi-faceted disc brake conversion/shock boss issue SOLVED!

[eurotrash]

Merry Christmas (or the equivalent) everyone!!

I have posted in the past searching for a solution to get my rear shocks under control with out having to shell out big bucks to Bilstein to shorten them. I changed from HD's to Sports and that didn't solve the problem.. I looked for shocks from other applications that had the travel/mounting I needed.. etc. etc.

It all stems from a rear disc conversion, in combination with the lowered body. Basically, lowering the car combined with moving the shock boss in and up, to make room for the caliper placed at the 3 o'clock position, removed around 4 inches of the shocks travel. Muy Mal..err something like that.

After much gnashing of teeth, and working via phone and photos with Mr. Fugate in Tennessee, I/we came to an idea that might just be clever enough to work.

I am very pleased with the outcome. It took care of every issue I was having and considering that my machinist is four hours south and never once was able to physically take a measurement himself to make it happen, we made pulled it off on the first try!!

Stock:

Original design:

Adjusted for the wider wheels..

In this config, the shock boss was raised and moved forward. And due to the lost shock travel, the bottoming on hard dips caused the mounts to bend and sag.. and eventually, one snapped.

New Design. A two part plan:

Held on by the caliper adaptor plate bolts, these mount on the back of the swing arm and tuck the shock nicely in between the caliper and the swing arm axle tube..

Its about as tight as it could be.. But its clean and neat and the shock is at least as low in mounting as the original boss!

[aa/fd]

Nicely done

[Harv]

Yep.

Nicely done.

John

[nbcbird]

Nice job. Just looking at the photo of the bracket customized for wider wheels gave me pause to wonder how secure it would be. I guess you found out. One of the reasons I enjoy 2002 ownership is that it's mechanical simplicity allows easy customization and fabrication of special parts when the need arises.--Jim

[eurotrash]

Nice job. Just looking at the photo of the bracket customized for wider wheels gave me pause to wonder how secure it would be. I guess you found out.

YEAH. They were slated to get metal welded in for support, but once the shock issue was discovered, I let it go. Fate had it that it broke before we could get the redesign completed..

[eurotrash]

Photo of stock swing arm added for reference. Pretty sweet.