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Re: air shock success on 79 spitfire

To: brichard@us.oracle.com
Subject: Re: air shock success on 79 spitfire
From: "Donald H. Locker" <dhl@mrdog.msl.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1999 23:26:53 -0400
Hi, Bradley.

I'm glad you identified the problems that all of us who were
never contemplating the air shock upgrade never had to avoid. :)

> It was a pain to do this.  Ran into many problems.  Even had to remove
> the anti sway bar, the starter, the battery, and one of my front
> speakers.

On a more serious note, unless the shock that was "bad" was bad in
such a way that it was sticking, it should not have affected at all
the ride height.  "shock absorbers" are actually dampers, and (again,
unless it is sticky, so it has an ability to apply a force without
motion) a damper can not affect ride height.

Try putting your hand in a tub of water -- as long as you don't try to
move your hand, there is no force applied to it.  Now if you touch
against the bottom of the tub (like a sticky seal might behave), you
won't be able to move your hand until you reach some threshold force.
But most "shocks" fail by losing their fluid, not by getting sticky,
in my experience.

> And, I found out why my spitfire was sitting so slanted.  Must have had
> a bad rear shock, even though they weren't that old.  When I was done,
> had about 50 pounds of pressure in each shock, put the car down, ran it
> a little to reseat the tires and wheels correctly, and lo and behold, my
> car no longer sits with a 2 inch slant on both the front and the back.

Donald.

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