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shocks on my 60 Plymouth Suburban ramblings
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udoittwo
Posted 2015-08-22 10:12 AM (#487740)
Subject: shocks on my 60 Plymouth Suburban ramblings


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Location: Valley Forge, Pa.
When I bought my car, it was lowered. It looked sort of kool but it rode terrible and the length left it bottoming out on everything. When I rasied it, I put new shocks on all around. Still rode hard. I came to this site and was told that it should have a nice smooth ride. The alignment garage said it DID ride terrible but they said everything was in good shape. The first set of 4 shocks I bought off ebay as "fits 1960 Plymouth Suburban". I figured the fronts were not correct and they were bottoming out. I found a set of NOS

DELCOs that all my books showed to be correct for my car but no change. Tried to raise the front a little with the torsion bars and that actually did make the very slighest change but still not enough. Lucked out and found a set of NOS MOPARs and I KNOW they are correct but no change. I changed the rear springs a few years ago as one was sagging slightly and that had no affect on the ride at the time. I bought another set of shocks for the rear and nothing.

I tow my boat sometimes and although it doesn't really show in the side view, it alters the ride enough that it sometimes fishtails so I have to move any weight in the car to the front of the rear axel and towards the rear of the boat to lighten the tounge weight. This helps some. This June, I went to Gabrial air shocks on the rear. I installed the lines and had the local shop install the shocks. I asked then to fill to correct pressure. Apparently they only added a few lbs if any. The car still rode bad. The next morning I

hooked up my boat, got gas and checked the shock air pressure before I started my 7 hr drive to Canada. I added a lot of air to the shocks and the car stopped hitting hard for the first time sence I owned it. Finally, one long time problem solved.

I have had handling problems also from day 1. I had the car aligned 4 times by 4 different shops but it still handled bad. Earlier this summer I took it to a local shop of all post 50 year olds and asked him could he do anything. He basically hand tuned the front end. I can now take my hands off the wheel and it would go straight for the first time but it still periodically fishtailed with the boat hooked up. Got up to Canada and the ONLY garage for miles was a Chrysler dealership. I asked if the would rotate the tires and

change the oil. 1PM I took the car in. It went emmediately on the lift[after the kid figured out how to start it]. I figured and hour, so I would wait. I had changed the filter to the screw-on style so that was no problem but the didn't have any oil and had to send out. Meanwhile, they had called in everyone from miles around to look at my car. By 2:15 the oil was finally changed. Rotated the tires with the car on the ground so he would lift one wheel and so on. 3PM. There was a slight tranny leak and it was in the steel

line. One end of the line was cut off so I could slip on a hose for my remote tranny cooler. It took him 2 hours to replace the few feet of line. I'm on vacation, it was a sunny day and I spent nearly 4 1/2 hours for an oil change and tire rotation. I was unhappy and let the poor girl know. Then came the bill $39.99 oil, $19.99 rotation, and $200 to replace the line. I told them I would pay the bill but I want the replaced line and i was going to send it to Chrysler with a copy of the bill. 5 minutes later the service manager

came out and said that it appeared i was unhappy and he didn't want me to leave unhappy, so they would forget the tranny work, if I would simply pay for the oil and rotation IF that would make me happy. Still a wasted vacation day but I was happier.

Anyway, now the tires are rotated with the nice alignment and it handled like a dream coming home. Wished I hadn't filled up with low grade gas that I can normally run. I couldn't get over 50MPH pulling the trailer on the interstate hills. As soon as I burned off enough of it, I added Sunoco high test and I was totally enjoying the ride.


Oh well, hope there was something that may be of interest to some one in my ramblings?
Later,
karl.
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StillOutThere
Posted 2015-08-22 10:19 AM (#487741 - in reply to #487740)
Subject: Re: shocks on my 60 Plymouth Suburban ramblings



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Location: Under the X in Texas
So, bottom line, the only thing that changed your ride was the tire rotation? You must have a pair of AWFUL tires. I don't know which end of the car they are on now from the story.
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Mopar1
Posted 2015-08-23 5:47 PM (#487811 - in reply to #487741)
Subject: Re: shocks on my 60 Plymouth Suburban ramblings



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Posts: 3027
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Location: N.W. Fla.
You're way less likely to feel an out of balance or out of round tire on the back vs the front. Try having a friend follow you & see if a problem is visible going down the road.
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