The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Ok, my 73 challenger had air shocks and traction bars when I got it. I'm at the phase of trying to lift the rear of the car without using air shocks, because my tires are hitting the wheel lip when the air leaks out of the shocks. I just want something fairly cheap , because in the summer I am going to change the leaf springs and do it the right way. But for now, I was thinking of changing to aftermarket longer shackles and going back to the standard gas shock to give me the lift i need .Has anyone ever changed the shackles on their car before or have any suggestions? Thanks , Nick

The rear shackles come off and back on easy so no problem from that department.

Longer shackles will ruin the handling.

The stock rubber bushes will be gone I would guess. I feel poly bushings in place of the stock rubber help the handling at the rear quite a bit. They help resist sideways movement of the axle a little better.

But you know what the real answer to your problem is already.

Can anyone recommend a brand of gas adjust shox for the rear of a Challenger? I was planning to use KYB, but can't find anything suitable in the Summit catalogue.
Would adjustable drag shocks (set to 'hard') be any use? I'm reaching, aren't I.....?

ps- I have heard (probably on here) that B- body Roadrunner rear shox are the same as ours.Might be a solution, if it's true.

Summit carry a lot more stuff than you will find in their catalogue. You can get the KYB shocks for your Challenger from them or most suspension places like P.S.T. etc.

I swear by Koni's. They're adjustable and re-buildable too, but are expensive. I was hoping to buy some for my car, but the distributor was relocating at the time I needed shocks, so I installed gas filled Munroe's. They seem to work okay, but I still plan to install Konis in the future. The only other shocky I would consider would be Bilsteins. They're also adjustable and rebuildable and standard equipment on Mercedes and Corvette so must be pretty good.

I have a pair of Monroe Monro-Matics Plus up front. From what I remember, they worked really well. Just how expensive are the Koni's? You also said that Bilsteins was the only other shock the you would recommend. How much would a set of those cost?

Not sure on costs Joel, as both are European (Koni's are from Holland and Bilsteins are from Germany I believe) and anything made there is usually excellent quality but bloody expensive (for us in Oz anyway). I installed a set of Koni's on my 4x4 and they cost me A$1000 for four or about US$600, but that was 10 years ago and they are still on my 4x4 some 210,000 km's later and just like brand new. These would be more expensive than for a "car" as they were "long-travel" to suit my "lifted" Landcruiser with huge heavy duty coil springs. You only get what you pay for in this world!

Thanks for the advice. Dave was right (unsuprisingly), there were loads more entries in the Summit online catalogue, though the KYB entries were a bit confusing. Both types for Challengers were listed as 'fronts'. After a bit of furtling round the KYB site, I can advise the correct numbers for anyone looking to buy KYB's in the future, are:-

Front: KG4510
Rear: KG5512

Through Summit, the KYB's are $27 each. The Koni's are $99 each. which unfortunatley is a bit too expensive for me. Hopefully the KYB's will be a big step forward from my current leaky old air shocks.

I think the KYBs, although far from the best damper/shock absorber in the world, are good value for money. Mine seem to work very well and as you have found the price is easy to swallow.