Struts - Again! (Trying not to beat a dead horse)

[TankII]

Currently running Konis/Eibachs, purchased and installed 140K miles ago in 1999 in KY (Yes, Ron P, I'm still running them!). Only one has gone bad in the past, and now I have another one I need to send out to reman.
However, since these units only dampen adjustably in one direction, the car gets front floaty at speed.
I'm looking at replacing them with non-adjustable struts (front only) that will dampen in both directions better than these Konis without going Coilovers.

Options are:
Monroe - OEM Taurus, not SHO, as Sensatracs are no longer available. Don't think they will cut it for Eibachs.

Gabriel Ultra - Better than OEM Taurus, not SHO specific though, hearing good things about them on other boards. They are significantly stiffer than the old Gas Ryders, I hear. The old Gas Ryders were OEM Taurus replacements, but barely adequate for stock SHO. Gas Ryders were great shocks, lousy struts.

KYB - Good dampening, lousy life. Comparable to Sensatracs, without the longevity. Didn't get three years on a set on my wife's Minivan!

Sachs - OEM SHO replacement (Rebranded as Motorcraft), supposedly good life. Don't know if it has been engineered better over time or if it is still the same. Any recent input? They are less money than Konis.

Thoughts and input? Basically, if I had realized a non-linear spring with a strut that only dampens in one direction would be so much trouble to get tuned, I would have gone a different path at the beginning - Konis and Intrax would have been better, or Tokicos and Eibachs.

Dave R.

 

[RonPorter]

You're basically screwed, Dave!!

Anyway, 10 years ago, I tried KYB GR2s with Eibachs on my 94. The rears worked well, the fronts were pogoing in less than a 1000 miles on the way to the California SHO Convention.

Now, if you sweet-talk Bill Strobel, theamcguy here, the white 89 that he bought from me had a new set of Tokico struts & B&G lowering springs. He is considering going back to a NOS set of stock SHO struts springs that he already owns.

Other than that, if you are interested in a good handling setup, coilovers are really your only option.

I really doubt that any Sachs made today are SHO compatible.

 

[LOUDSHO92]

Options are:
Monroe - OEM Taurus, not SHO, as Sensatracs are no longer available. Don't think they will cut it for Eibachs.

What do you mean? You can still get Sensatracs.

 

[TankII]

Around here and on Monroe's site, Sensatracs are not available. They were my first choice too.
Sachs lists struts for the SHO on their site 030 045 fronts. If they are valved similarly to stock, but have newer technology then they would be adequate for the Eibachs.

 

[LOUDSHO92]

It looks like they re-named Sensatracs too OESpectrum so they should be the same.

 

[TankII]

I called and verified Monroe did rebrand the struts. Wouldn't have been my first choice for a new name, especially with the established brand recognition.
The internal technology is the same though, according to Tech Support.

Sachs states their struts are OEM replacement - ergo, no new engineering. Which means they didn't mess with success - or recovered their engineering costs and are not investing additional funds on an older product.

Gabriel states their struts are better than Taurus OEM, but not SHO specific. However, they stated the engineering is significantly more advanced than the Gas Ryder series and would be a match for the OEM SHO struts. The engineer I spoke to didn't think they would truly fit the Eibach dampening requirements though, and didn't recommend them for a permanent replacement, only temporary. I liked his honesty! Curious if anyone on the list has tried them on any other vehicle - need struts on another car.

FPS in Atlanta recommended KYB's as an inexpensive temporary replacement strut for Eibachs.

And then there were two...

TankII

 

[TimboSHO]

I had a set of KYB GR2's on a lowered SHO and they were quite pogo-y. I think they had been on the car for several years though.

Wow. I guess I better save for a set of coilovers. That's a pretty bleak outlook!

FYI, I had a friend try Gabriel struts on his Contour SVT. He thought they were good to begin with, but didn't like the ride after a couple of years.

 

[94shodriver]

I am currently running the same setup, about 6 years old and 45k on them. I have tracked this setup a lot and while the spring rate leaves a bit to be desired, the rebound damping is set to full stiff, floating is not even close to an issue. Though I usually run the fronts at 1/4 to 1/2 off of full soft on the street to prevent float on the highway and the rears full soft, there are no issues during spirited driving with the same settings. The way I understand damping, compression damping is used to control unsprung weight and rebound is used to control the spring motion of the suspension. So compression is more related to fixed items, but rebound can be changed for spring rate and desired transient behavior to a lesser degree.

If your car is floating with some rebound adjustment, you probably have more than one bad strut. Either way I would rather repair/rebuild the kong's than downgrade, especially for damping proposes. If budget and time are an issue (which I didn't see) then you would want to go an off the shelf route.

 

[TankII]

The struts have behaved this way since installation, and I'm only on my second bad strut. I have the back turned about 1/2 and the front 3/4 on the street, and on undulating pavement, it gets floaty. When the front started going bad, I cranked both down full, to no avail.
I picked up a pair of Sensatrac units on Wed, both in new brown boxes. One didn't extend properly without help, so I exchanged it for another at another store - in a white Sensatrac box. Old unit had the twist-to-unlock feature.

Definite improvement. Car is stiffer all around, for now, even though I only replaced the fronts. I'll let you know how it is in a few weeks of driving in Fartford, CT's potholes (A local DJ's nickname for Hartford).

TankII

 

[DJSHO91]

I'm running the Gabriels, with cargo coils, and I've been greatly pleased with the combination. Nice solid ride without beating you to death. You get a little lean entering the corners, but it takes a nice set and is very controllable. My 91' is a daily driver!

 

[TankII]

Impressions so far:
Still less floaty. Definitely leans more on initial dive in a corner. Ride is slightly smoother, but not significantly so as I didn't have the Konis cranked down all the way.
Also, I just swapped my tires Monday. Torque Steer is gone along with the Bridgestone RE760's - The new BFG Sport COMP2's are a major change in that respect!

TankII

 

[paburke001]

Impressions so far:
Still less floaty. Definitely leans more on initial dive in a corner. Ride is slightly smoother, but not significantly so as I didn't have the Konis cranked down all the way.
Also, I just swapped my tires Monday. Torque Steer is gone along with the Bridgestone RE760's - The new BFG Sport COMP2's are a major change in that respect!

TankII

Dave,

I have been running Konis/Eibachs since 2010 and have enjoyed the handling over the stock performance, but have not noticed the float you mention. I don't know what my Konis are set to, but will be finding out soon as I now have a project to move them from my original '95 to a recently purchased replacement '95. I can't offer any advice as I don't understand much of what you guys are talking about on this thread. Instead I am looking for advice from the group, as one of my struts was bent during the 'fender bender' that totaled my original '95.

So I am also looking to put my front Eibachs on something new, possibly following your lead with going with the Sensa-Tracs. Sounds like KYBs might be okay, too. With my experience, I'd probably never notice the differences you guys are discussing. would not be good. I wanted to ask about two things, though. First, did I understand that Konis can be repaired? Or just rebuilt with new seals? The upper rod on mine is bent, so I'm wondering if that is even an option.

Second, I was wondering about the Sachs. If they are supposedly OEM and they were (?) an option, would it also be an option to put the Eibachs on OEM struts? Maybe I'm missing the boat, but I think I can get two new Motorcraft struts. I was going to get one in order to put in the rebuilt Koni (if that ended up being an option, I heard it is best to use only the OEM strut for the Koni) but thought maybe I could run with 2 Motorcraft struts, even if temporarily, until I can figure out how to get one more Koni. I'm looking at part number F4DZ-1824-D, right? Not many left out there, but I think I found a couple. Anyway, I'm looking for advice from all you guys who seem to have a lot of experience.

Finally, I'm wondering what else I should consider replacing while I'm trying to move these struts over myself (first time doping this myself). I'm not sure what to look for with regard to the strut mounts/bearings. What about the rubber parts? I decided to go with the Moog front sway bar link as opposed to OEM, but can return them if not a good choice. And I did get some new subframe bushings from Doug at FPS, but not sure if I will tackle those myself.

Thanks, guys!

Paul B.