Calling in the pro's....

[haminawag]

I'm curious how your Wag drives since you got those new shocks in the rear, is it real stiff or choppy at all? How about around town with no weight in the back? You paid about $65.00 for the pair? Am I right?

[Dr. Marneaus]

New shocks on all 5 corners

5 corners?
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2

What, your FSJ doesn't have 5 corners?

New shocks on all 5 corners

5 corners?
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Steering damper? I have to be honest, it's been a few days since I read from the beginning.

Yup, did the steering stabilizer too, but 5 was definitely a typo lol.

[Dr. Marneaus]

I'm curious how your Wag drives since you got those new shocks in the rear, is it real stiff or choppy at all? How about around town with no weight in the back? You paid about $65.00 for the pair? Am I right?

It rode great on the highway. Didnt feel stiff or choppy. When I came up to spots on the highway that i would normally cringe (a dip or big bump) it felt like the rear was under much more control if that makes sense? I could tell the suspension didnt dip as much as it would.

Havent towed with it yet or driven offroad. Hopefully do a trail run in the next few weeks.

[FSJunkie]

For the record, my Wagoneer has those exact same shocks: Monroe Load-levelers, only I have them on all four corners. The actual shock is a "sense-trac", which means it has less dampening in the middle of it's travel and gets progressively tighter toward the ends. What that does is give you a nice ride on the street and dampens like heck off-road. Most shocks will just be soft floaty street shocks or stiff as heck off-road shocks.

The ones I have on the front add 60"-lbs. of rate and the rears are progressive at 60-100"-lbs. This combined with my leaf springs gives me 210"-lbs. in front and a progressive rate in back of 200-360"-lbs. That's the equivalent of the HD suspension option that year. My Wagoneer should have had that option anyway, as it is a highly optioned model and therefore, is very heavy. Base Wagoneers were 3800lbs, mine is easily over 4000.

They ride exceptionally smooth, just don't corner worth a darn. Other than a brief couple of months, my Jeep has had Monroe coil-overs since the mid 1980's.
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By the way, Doctor, did you replace the master cylinder when you did the dick brake conversion? Disk brakes take a higher capacity MS than drums along with higher pressure.

[haminawag]

Not to hijack the good doctors thread...BUT...FSJunkie, re: Monroe Sensa-trac shocks on your FSJ, is your FSJ lifted? I can't find anything on these shocks that indicates whether they're available in a 4" extended length, if they are do you have that PN? thanks.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[FSJunkie]

Hang on....and I'll look up specs for you. I used to be a Napa counterman and still have access to the cataloging system.

1979 Wagoneer 4" lift. Are your bumpstops extended 4" as well?

[FSJunkie]

Haha, never mind, you don't have a choice.

1976-1983 Wagoneer.

Stock shocks (front and rear, they're the same according to my listings):

Extended length: 21"
Compressed length: 12.625"

Add 4" to both dimensions, 25" and 16.625". Extended length is important, but compressed length will matter based on where your bump-stops are.

The closest Monroe Load-leveler available has the following specs:

Extended length: 23.375"
Compressed length: 14"

So you're 1.6 inches too short on extended length, which will cut articulation depending on where your ride height is. Compressed length is actually very good, your bump-stops should be extended 2" to prevent bottoming of the shock, maybe more depending on how much you want to reverse-arch your springs, which is not good for them.

That's your only option in Load-levelers. The next closest set has even less extended length.

Your lift is purely spring lift, right?

[haminawag]

The front is spring only, the rear uses blocks. Look under "FSJ modified tech" "SOA lift versus stock". The whole thing is a bit confused. Anyway, drop me a line over there so Doctor Marnaeus can have his thread back if ya don't mind, thanks for your help BTW.

[Dr. Marneaus]

FYI, I'm listed 4" and am using near-stock-length coil overs in the back because i moved my shock mounts up a good 3" when i put the new axle in.

In the front i took some long ones from like a 85 F250 or something that are jsut right.

I dont have the measurements in front of me.

[haminawag]

Thanks Doc, yeah, I know you relocated the rear shock mounts, I've been following your build since day one, almost. I decided that on my '79 I wanted to just go with a 4" lift and keep everything else as stock as possible since the hardest duty it's going to see is some moderate 4WD trails in the mountains of New Mexico, but as usual Murphy has to rear his head and toss a wrench into the works. I'm a bit behind the eight ball here because, even though I had a '68 Wag years ago, I never messed around much with 4WD, and it's a little different than building suspensions for drag cars, ha ha

So I need to make a few decisions on the rear suspension first, cause I don't want to have to buy rear shocks twice. But, as they say, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?