After doing an SOA on your rigs what did you use for the rear shock mount? Not on the x-member but where the shock was on the u-bolt plate. What did you guys use? Make your own? And did you move the mounting pt on the x-member or keep it where it originally was? Thanks for all the help in advance.
Sean

I attached the spring pin to a piece of flat bar stock welded to the rear of the spring perches that I made. These are shown in the following pic (with the shocks removed). I didn't move the upper pins, but if I did it again, I would probably move them more toward the center of the crossmember.
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jrice/cruiser/Tsm2.jpg

medusa that rig is entirely too clean, i mean its looks damn close to show quality. how could you stand to take it out wheeling. you must have had a long cold winter. mike

now that i look at it some more it even looks cleaner. you should use that thing for a disk brake add. nice, very nice

Nice work:eek: I agree very clean. Thanks for the input on the shock mounts:D
Sean

Mine are located on the back of the axle housing, ~2" inside the the rear springs, and above the centerline of the housing. My rear shocks are mounted at about a 45 degree angle to custom top mounts as well.

Woody, you got a pic of them? What did you make your custom upper shock mounts out of? And how far did you move them in from the original point(the x-member mount)?
Thanks, Sean

Butch Lewis of Napa makes a rear spring perch/shock mount combo for SOA's. If interested, I can take a picture of my Cruiser later today when I get home.

Not sure if I have any pics.....but there's nothing to them really...

I simply used a piece of u-shaped 1/4" steel channel, about 1" ID or so, and welded it to the axle, spacing it out just enuf to fit the nut for the shock stud inside.

For the top, my shock pins moved from the front side of the frame tube to the back side due to my shackle reversal. I took a piece of 1/4" thick, ~12" long, 3" wide flat stock and welded it to the stock frame cross tube. I had 8 holes evenly spaced drilled in it, allowing me to move the upper shock mount inward or outwards, depending on ride and travel needs. They ended up about 1.5" lower than stock and the adjustability was nice when I was tweaking ride and travel characteristics.

Those pictures were taken at the end of the build-up project almost four years ago. The 40 has been wheeled, broke and repaired quite a bit since then:)

Woody, thanks for the info on your mounts. Medusa, nice to know you didnt keep it clean:D sorry to hear you broke stuff. FJ4ZROK, got any more info on that NAPA guy? And i would love to see some pics.
Sean

I did my rear shock mounts like woody mentioned (sort of). Actually my lower rear shock mounts are identical to what Jay Kopinsky (spelling) had on his website for toyota pickups. I think he goes by the name of rocktoy.

http://www.mindspring.com/~jayk3/toyota/

For the upper mounts I simply drilled new holes through the crossmember a couple of inches closer together than the stock mounts, put large bolts through and tack welded them in place.

Here is the link directly to a picture of his lower shock mounts...mine are very similar.
http://www.outdoorwire.com/4x4/toyota/tech/mini_rearsusp1/

Thanks guys

Originally posted by woody
Mine are located on the back of the axle housing, ~2" inside the the rear springs, and above the centerline of the housing. My rear shocks are mounted at about a 45 degree angle to custom top mounts as well.

Just curious what the logic is behind mounting the rear shocks at a 45 degree angle? Better dampening action? Better droop?

Thanks

When I SO my '72 I used the old spring perch. I cut them in half then ground it down so it mounted flush with the bottom of the axle housing and moved it about 2" inboard of the springs.

Originally posted by burnt03


Just curious what the logic is behind mounting the rear shocks at a 45 degree angle? Better dampening action? Better droop?

Thanks

I believe its to utilize the shock and get more leangth out of it. If it were just straight up and down you you say only get 17" out of the shock where as at a 45 you would get just say 25". Dont know that I explained that well:confused:

You will get less dampning effect by putting it at a 45 also.

Anybody feel free to correct me if I am wrong:flipoff2:

Pretty much what Erik said. You get less dampening from the shocks when they are NOT mounted vertical. I believe the rule of thumb is something like this:

0* - 100%
10*- 98%
20*- 92
30*- 86
40*- 74
50*- 68

I hope this helps.

FWIW, I had my lower shock mounts like Jack (Medusa) did when I had a SOA. For my upper mounts, I took a 6" piece of box tubing 2x2x3/16", cut the top surface out of it (so it is now a |_| shape), and welded it to the bottom of the rear crossmember(not the bumper). Then I drilled 2 holes in it for shock mounts and my rear shocks were at about 45* with 9012s. Of course you would have to have your rear axle pushed back where I did in order to have it this way.



I know this may be a shocker, but the Pirate4x4 site also has a tech dept. Check out Dogwalker's SOA Tech Writeup (http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/spring_over/index.html)

He has some pics of different SOA setups in there and he shows some rear shock mounting methods.


http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/spring_over/rearshocks2.jpg


http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/spring_over/13.jpg