FX3 Shocks

[tomtom72]

Not to complicate your diagnostics RR. I have a 90 also and my car sat thru 14.5 yrs with it's original owner only putting 7400 miles in that time span. I buy the car and have it maybe 3 yrs and maybe high 20k on it total. I start to notice that over regular undulations on a highways, not pot holes, the car started to float & cycle what I thought was excessively, and scrape the spoiler and I had to go up in shock setting to stop it. At first ( say about 20k miles ) just going from tour to sport did the trick, but by about 25K miles I had to use performance.

I did the old school shock bounce test and eyed up the tubes for excessive oil...both were negative to inconclusive in results. I bought a new set on line and the floating & scraping went away....no other suspension work was done at the same time. I had a hard time admitting to myself that my shocks were worn out with so few miles. At almost 100k I would put new shocks on the list.

The clunking over bumps I agree is proly the A bushings. I did mine around 40k. I cheated & bought NOS A arms complete. I also redid the sway bar mts & end links. I never realized I had some slop in the steering till I put the new parts in. I just think I'm trying to say that we own 20 yr old stuff & it don't last forever no matter if you use it or not!

Sorry to so long winded!


Tom

[RedRiderZR1]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Not to complicate your diagnostics RR. I have a 90 also and my car sat thru 14.5 yrs with it's original owner only putting 7400 miles in that time span. I buy the car and have it maybe 3 yrs and maybe high 20k on it total. I start to notice that over regular undulations on a highways, not pot holes, the car started to float & cycle what I thought was excessively, and scrape the spoiler and I had to go up in shock setting to stop it. At first ( say about 20k miles ) just going from tour to sport did the trick, but by about 25K miles I had to use performance.

I did the old school shock bounce test and eyed up the tubes for excessive oil...both were negative to inconclusive in results. I bought a new set on line and the floating & scraping went away....no other suspension work was done at the same time. I had a hard time admitting to myself that my shocks were worn out with so few miles. At almost 100k I would put new shocks on the list.

The clunking over bumps I agree is proly the A bushings. I did mine around 40k. I cheated & bought NOS A arms complete. I also redid the sway bar mts & end links. I never realized I had some slop in the steering till I put the new parts in. I just think I'm trying to say that we own 20 yr old stuff & it don't last forever no matter if you use it or not!

Sorry to so long winded!


Tom

No worries on being long winded. Its all good info. I did put the car up on the lift. I spun all 4 wheels and they are all flat spotted pretty bad. I also noticed some play in the drivers front wheel. Bushings all "look" good. Everything felt solid. Shock are dry. But I do agree, some new shocks wouldn't be a bad idea. But it seems the shocks set to performance hide a lot of the shake from the bad flat spotted tires. Get over 80 it feels pretty good.
Shakes good at 55 and 78 so stay below or above that and your good. No shake on city streets, feels good then. But tires are definitely needed and front left work needed as well first. Go from there.

Thanks.
Greg

[GOLDCYLON]

Originally Posted by RedRiderZR1

No worries on being long winded. Its all good info. I did put the car up on the lift. I spun all 4 wheels and they are all flat spotted pretty bad. I also noticed some play in the drivers front wheel. Bushings all "look" good. Everything felt solid. Shock are dry. But I do agree, some new shocks wouldn't be a bad idea. But it seems the shocks set to performance hide a lot of the shake from the bad flat spotted tires. Get over 80 it feels pretty good.
Shakes good at 55 and 78 so stay below or above that and your good. No shake on city streets, feels good then. But tires are definitely needed and front left work needed as well first. Go from there.

Thanks.
Greg

Cool news great, well time for new tires. Let us you know if you need any help getting her back on the road. We drivers need to stick together. Im a big believer that if you dont actually drive these cars around they tend to get these types of problems. I found the best price for my shocks at eshock.com. Still pricey little bastagges. Tirerack and dicount tires the best deal for the tires. GC

[GOLDCYLON]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Not to complicate your diagnostics RR. I have a 90 also and my car sat thru 14.5 yrs with it's original owner only putting 7400 miles in that time span. I buy the car and have it maybe 3 yrs and maybe high 20k on it total. I start to notice that over regular undulations on a highways, not pot holes, the car started to float & cycle what I thought was excessively, and scrape the spoiler and I had to go up in shock setting to stop it. At first ( say about 20k miles ) just going from tour to sport did the trick, but by about 25K miles I had to use performance.

I did the old school shock bounce test and eyed up the tubes for excessive oil...both were negative to inconclusive in results. I bought a new set on line and the floating & scraping went away....no other suspension work was done at the same time. I had a hard time admitting to myself that my shocks were worn out with so few miles. At almost 100k I would put new shocks on the list.

The clunking over bumps I agree is proly the A bushings. I did mine around 40k. I cheated & bought NOS A arms complete. I also redid the sway bar mts & end links. I never realized I had some slop in the steering till I put the new parts in. I just think I'm trying to say that we own 20 yr old stuff & it don't last forever no matter if you use it or not!

Sorry to so long winded!


Tom

T its one thong to be long winded. Its completely another thing when your firends here always want to hear what you say to help with a problem area. With a beer

[GOLDCYLON]

Originally Posted by PhillipsLT5

Car has been sitting for some time, so not sure what it is.
Flat spots on tires?

Good call Phil

[PhillipsLT5]

I agree GC, Drive EM

[tomtom72]

Greg, thanks for not thinking that I was just throwing stuff out there to waste your money on!

Daryl, thanks for the reminder that all of us try to help one another....me included! It's just I worry that if I leave something out, because I think I'm going too long, it will be the one thing needed to help a BOB get to the answer. I'd be happy to hoist a few with you any time!

Oh, forgot this about the shocks. ( here I go again! ) If you buy new ones Greg they do not come with new upper bushings, they are optional and not available from e-shocks or any of those type guys. I got mine from DRM, call Randy as he is excellent to deal with. A word of caution on the install!!!!

There is a measurement for the height of the shock gear to sit proud of the actuator cup, 5 mm and that's an after torquing the top nut on the shaft to 22 n/m (?). The measurement & T/Q values are in the FSM, don't trust my memory! Here is the issue with replacing the old bushings. They take a "set" and the new ones have not. This could yield a bad "installed in the frame with the car's weight " 5mm reading. The result usually is the gear on the actuator breaks, or the shock gear, or both. This happened to Ron K our former president. I followed the thread here but I can't find it again! Anyway, my stupid solution if I ever get around to installing the new ones I bought would be to leave off the actuators, unplug the brain box, and drive on them for awhile to get them to compress. I don't know what Ron's resolution to the issue was specifically....so I just filed my "answer" away for later.


Tom