My ‘64 B has aftermarket leaf springs which provide about a 2†lift. Original shocks type/size won’t fit. Any recommendations for brand and which size will fit? Don’t need fancy Rauncho etc. stuff… KYB etc would be fine:-))
Thanks!!!
Willybob,
This maybe your first post? Welcome and thanks for posting some images of your 3B! That's a nice looking project!
On my '54 3B, I replaced the original springs with aftermarket "stock" from Walck's. I got a 1"-1.5" lift and found the original shocks would just barely fit - with some effort - on three out of four. The last shock needed about a 1/4" to fit.
This was with full extension so there would be zero travel on the shock and a hard termination whenever the springs would extend.
I thought having longer shocks than the stock would be a better idea. You can get the stock dimensions of the shock from the Service Manual.
Table S-9. SHOCK ABSORBER SPECIFICATIONS
There it lists the compressed and extended lengths.
I chose to increase the travel to get a higher "extended" limit. That also increased the "compressed" value but I rationalized that I wouldn't need full compression as I didn't intend to push the suspension that hard. I just wanted a little extra travel that would allow the shock to do its job without hitting a hard limit.
There are some cross reference sites that can help with finding what you need. I went off on a tangent and used an online comparison chart to pick mine out, but here's one by a jeeper specifically addressing the jeep vehicles.
http://www.willystech.com/faqs/Breakout/Shocks/shockref.htmThe original shocks were only hydraulic. Most modern shocks are gas boosted.
I can imagine a gas shock would help original tired springs but would have preferred getting just hydraulic for mine. I'll be looking into that down the road, possibly.
