Hollon71
SHO Member
Is it extremely difficult to change the Radiator & Shocks on the SHO? I also have some new hoses arriving by month's end. I'm going to be ordering those soon from my O'Reilly Store where I work at.
Radiator & Shocks
- Thread starter Hollon71
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luigisho
SHO Member
Depends on how handy you are. I had a spring shoot through my garage once from changing struts and using a loan a tool spring compressor. only happened once-- but you'll never forget to be really careful if it happens. These cars make shadetree mechanics out of alot of us so I would not be afraid to tackle it. Very straight forward.
Hollon71
SHO Member
Well, I can't do much mechanical work on things today due the "fender bender" I was in back in 2001 with the '97 SHO that I had. One of the main fingers, on my right hand, can't bend down much since it has several broken bones in the finger. Also, the muscles inside my body, on the right side, doesn't stretch out much from all the surgeries. I opened the hood and saw that the radiator will not be easy to get out.
As for the shocks, one place said it's worse to change the rear ones vs the front ones. One good thing is, working at an O'Reilly Store, we have multiple mechanics that our clients at my store. LOL
Radiator comes out the bottom. Not terribly difficult as long as you can raise the car high enough.
gamefanatic
SHO Member
When replacing the suspension on the SHO, be aware that they were semi-active and what remains on the market is primarily a passive setup. However, you will have a nice ride with a purely passive kit, unless you splurge for a custom coil-over kit. There will be no warning lights that appear if you disconnect the suspension electrical, so moving to a non-active ride setup is fairly straight-forward.
Here is the OEM rear SARC suspension was made by "SACHS", still available from Rock Auto:
There is only a left for the Front for over a year now:
I suppose with a welder you could cut the tabs off and weld things so a left could be made a right, but that's as close as you can get to stock.
Being this is a McPherson setup, it's a bit more complicated than say a Double WishBone for the front. You will need to compress the spring in most cases to get it out of the car, otherwise have one of those tools that can push down on the bottom suspension and up on the shock at the same time to get it out of its base.
The rear is easier in the sense once you disconnect the suspension from the control arms it pretty much separates, but is more complicated as you have to remove the rear speaker cover and side trim pieces to get to the top bolts.
My first foray into a coil-over occurred after all the group buys had passed. I wanted a style that performed better at high speeds, so I went with a Maxpeeding Rods, created a custom rear mount, and adjustable front plate of my design (v1). Welded the bottom shafts, which are pressed together. I love it, but wouldn't recommend it for a daily-street. Maybe someday we can get another group buy done, but for now, I need to bump up the engine performance to match the suspension...
Here is the OEM rear SARC suspension was made by "SACHS", still available from Rock Auto:
There is only a left for the Front for over a year now:
I suppose with a welder you could cut the tabs off and weld things so a left could be made a right, but that's as close as you can get to stock.
Being this is a McPherson setup, it's a bit more complicated than say a Double WishBone for the front. You will need to compress the spring in most cases to get it out of the car, otherwise have one of those tools that can push down on the bottom suspension and up on the shock at the same time to get it out of its base.
The rear is easier in the sense once you disconnect the suspension from the control arms it pretty much separates, but is more complicated as you have to remove the rear speaker cover and side trim pieces to get to the top bolts.
My first foray into a coil-over occurred after all the group buys had passed. I wanted a style that performed better at high speeds, so I went with a Maxpeeding Rods, created a custom rear mount, and adjustable front plate of my design (v1). Welded the bottom shafts, which are pressed together. I love it, but wouldn't recommend it for a daily-street. Maybe someday we can get another group buy done, but for now, I need to bump up the engine performance to match the suspension...
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Hollon71
SHO Member
Since I work at an O'reilly store, here is what I will be getting for shocks.
As far as RockAuto, the Gates hoses I ordered from them, arrived yesterday. They had them available and O'Reilly didn't. Since our 3rd generation is old, I'm very sure it will be hard to find parts for them. I'm already going through THIS with my '02 Mazda Millenia S sedans. THAT Mazda is even harder to find parts for, hence is why I bought a 2nd one for parts.
As far as RockAuto, the Gates hoses I ordered from them, arrived yesterday. They had them available and O'Reilly didn't. Since our 3rd generation is old, I'm very sure it will be hard to find parts for them. I'm already going through THIS with my '02 Mazda Millenia S sedans. THAT Mazda is even harder to find parts for, hence is why I bought a 2nd one for parts.
gamefanatic
SHO Member
At least with the SHO the basic parts are interchangable with the base models in many cases and there were hundreds of thousands of those sold all the way up to 2007. So parts can be found, except for the heads and block themselves.
Those should work just fine for normal driving. I had Monroe on my non-SHO and they were great.
E1
Crash Tested
He has a '99.When replacing the suspension on the SHO, be aware that they were semi-active and what remains on the market is primarily a passive setup. However, you will have a nice ride with a purely passive kit, unless you splurge for a custom coil-over kit. There will be no warning lights that appear if you disconnect the suspension electrical, so moving to a non-active ride setup is fairly straight-forward.
Here is the OEM rear SARC suspension was made by "SACHS", still available from Rock Auto:
There is only a left for the Front for over a year now:
I suppose with a welder you could cut the tabs off and weld things so a left could be made a right, but that's as close as you can get to stock.
Being this is a McPherson setup, it's a bit more complicated than say a Double WishBone for the front. You will need to compress the spring in most cases to get it out of the car, otherwise have one of those tools that can push down on the bottom suspension and up on the shock at the same time to get it out of its base.
The rear is easier in the sense once you disconnect the suspension from the control arms it pretty much separates, but is more complicated as you have to remove the rear speaker cover and side trim pieces to get to the top bolts.
My first foray into a coil-over occurred after all the group buys had passed. I wanted a style that performed better at high speeds, so I went with a Maxpeeding Rods, created a custom rear mount, and adjustable front plate of my design (v1). Welded the bottom shafts, which are pressed together. I love it, but wouldn't recommend it for a daily-street. Maybe someday we can get another group buy done, but for now, I need to bump up the engine performance to match the suspension...
No SARC on '99's. Struts are available for 99's and 99 struts ARE the replacement part for 96 - 98 SHO's.
Also, is his an early 99 or late one? Only the early ones had an O/D Off button on the shifter.
gamefanatic
SHO Member
That's true. I forget they started downplaying features on the '99. I have seen a few, but not many and the 1 or 2 I got to get up under had the features.
I use the O/D button all the time for hills and what not.
My '99 must be one of the later ones. I don't have an O/D button on my shifter.
Hollon71
SHO Member
IF you need upper and lower radiator hoses, you better order them from RockAuto soon since they do not have many available. At O'Reilly's, they have none. I'm taking mine in on Wednesday to have them replaced. I'd much prefer to have the hoses changed FIRST before I order the shocks. The upper hose in my sedan now is very soft. I'm just waiting for something to happen to them.
gamefanatic
SHO Member
Agreed. Those soft hoses can leave you stranded.
I am starting to work with a vendor to put together a Taurus/SHO Gen3 specific silicon set. Which hoses are you looking to replace? There are some hoses that are unobtanium. You can work around that in many cases with off the shelf stuff, but I recall the split water pump one I had to find by looking at different vehicles in the past. And those that go to the oil cooler from the block to the pump typically aren't available.
Just starting things and need to get some actual OEM hoses to make the complete set.
Hollon71
SHO Member
I’m just ordered the upper and lower hoses. Nothing else at this time.
is this the correct number for the upper radiator hose?
NEW OEM Motorcraft KM-3036 Upper Radiator Coolant Hose - 96-99 Taurus 3.4L SHO
Since we can't post ebay listing except in the SHO Finds section, you can search ebay using the description above to get to the Spark Surplus listing. I have bought a bunch of stuff from them. I have found you need to double check the part numbers they list to be sure they are correct. They also have some other Gen 3 parts listed there as well, just search for SHO under their "Other items"
NEW OEM Motorcraft KM-3036 Upper Radiator Coolant Hose - 96-99 Taurus 3.4L SHO
Since we can't post ebay listing except in the SHO Finds section, you can search ebay using the description above to get to the Spark Surplus listing. I have bought a bunch of stuff from them. I have found you need to double check the part numbers they list to be sure they are correct. They also have some other Gen 3 parts listed there as well, just search for SHO under their "Other items"
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gamefanatic
SHO Member
That looks like it will work.
This is a common problem. I have ran into this a lot with O'Reilly's and others. It seems their catelogs are using a similar sources for parts lookups and many things are defaulting to the 3.0L versions such as the A/C Compressors, Alternators and Coolant Reseviors. So its always best to double check.
For the main hoses they are similar as the upper will want to have a bend to get past the battery box. Unfortinately most do not come with any heat protection to protect the battery box. I've seen problems with this in the past. The OEM had a metal clip shield that would provide enough seperation. I've successfully used nylon heat shielding (sometimes this is included).
Hollon71
SHO Member
Hollon71
SHO Member
I just ordered this for my SHO. Just like the coolant recovery, I think this one is leaking as well.
Hollon71
SHO Member
Hollon71
SHO Member
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