I ended up with two opposing brands of load leveling type rear shocks. Gabriel red spring load levelers and Monroe sens a trac black spring load shocks....I am looking to get 1/2 to 1 inch HIGHER in the rear of my 65 Lark. Who has used either of these and did they raise your vehicle any ? I can only find one review on the net and the guy said the Gabriels raised his truck a tad ....the Monroes I can find nothing on at all ........Thanks John
To raise the rear slightly, install a spacer under the coil spring. Either make one from steel or aluminum plate, or buy these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1964...ryZ33585QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem New coil springs are another option. About $65 a pair from Rockauto.com
I threw the Gabriel shocks on today as a cheap easy solution ....initially I got 1.5 inches higher with the Red Spring Gabriel load leveler shocks....after a short ride and after about 5 hours parked I just checked them a little while ago they are down to 1.25 " higher ...so they have lost a 1/4" so far .........side by side the Monroes have a beefier piston body and rod and a progressive outer spring vs the Gabriels plain rate outer spring. I would have liked to have gone with the Monroes but Monroe tech support advised after the fact their load levelers do not alter ride height ....So I had to go with the Gabriels. At the top of the spring the Monroes have a nice metal collar the spring stops against ...the Gabriels have what appears to be a plastic collar - thats right I said plastic collar the spring sits against for a stop at the top ...oh well they must work or they wouldnt sell them right ? When compressing down by hand the Gabriels offer a tad more resistance over the Monroe ...the Monroes however are slightly longer uncompressed by about 1/4 inch ......another thing was the Monroes offered immediate dampening out of the box when compressing them by hand...the Gabriels offered none.....at first I thought they were broken even after cycling them a bunch of times. But I decided to put them on anyway ...after the cars weight compressed them- then and only then did they start to actually dampen ???? But they feel fine and a quick push down on the rear bumper results in only one single bounce. So hopefully after a little more settling I will end up with a minimum 1 inch ride height adjustment....will let you know in a few weeks if they settle even more.........John
I had trouble with Monroes on my 87 turbo Limited, and they did not honor the warranty... Even with documented proof of there receiving them via UPS trace, copy of signature, everything. BEWARE of MONROE!
