The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Front shock absorber replacement / rear shock mounting questions

So, I'm sure i need front shocks. Seeing as if i jump on my front bumper the truck barely moves, but if i try to lift the truck from the front by hand i can pick it up about 3-4 inches fairly easily. One issue i have is that i don't know what size shocks to buy for the front and neither does my local parts store. Any help on that front would be greatly appreciated, If you have replaced the shocks on a truck with this suspension setup what ones did you buy?
I also have some weird stuff going on in the back. The truck was like that when i bought it, but i was curious about the safety of having the mounts at that angle (or lack there of). Thank you all.

“62' GMC Fleetside 3/4 ton 235 4-speed”?

I dont recall the size for front shock but you can purchase through our vendors. Classic Parts catalog, pg 75. LMC has as well. Cant help with 3/4 ton rear. Could use better picture to see how bad the bracket is hacked up.

If you want to do your own research Monroe has a good web page that allows you to plug in your fully extended and compressed measurement and give them the type of mounts on both ends...pretty easy.

Also, the existing shock will have it's part number stamped around one end of the tube...call Monroe and they can cross reference it if it's an obsolete number.

I just did all of this for my Willys Jeep project.

Mike B

x2 on the part # being on the shock body. And any half way decent parts house should be able to check availablity or cross over to thier brand. As far as that rear bracket goes that is definitly a major hack job and no it shouldn't be sitting at that much of an angle. As a matter of fact, from the looks of it, theres a good chance the bushing washer is coming in contact with the bracket. On that type of shock mount the frame bracket should be roughly parallel to the washers and only compress the bushings off angle a small amount when the suspension is working up and down. Hope that helps.
Dave

In taking another look at the rear pic it looks like the shock might be compressed most of the way as it sits which would limit travel if you hit a big bump and it trys to compress. Been to long time since I worked on a truck of that vintage, is it possible the other bracket thats above on the side of the frame is the original shock mount???

http://www.monroe.com/downloads/install-instructions-guides/MonroeMountingLengthSpecifications.pdf
Find the part number on the shock body, or by length from the above information.

tclederman - My truck is a 1962 GMC longbox fleetsidewith 3/4 ton axles and a 235 straight 6 with a 4-speed transmission.
Hambone - Thank you, I will be sure to check out your vendors. I will try to post some more pics of the botched rear end. When my wife bought the truck for me it was buried to the bumpers in the dirt from the last 20 years of rain where it sat in that one spot with a late 70's camper shell on it. We bought it before i could even see underneath it, but i got it to turn over and spray gas everywhere out the dried and cracked fuel lines so i asked my wife and she picked it up for $500 (just had to dig it out and tow it home with my friends 46' ford flatbed)
MikeB - Thank you for the advise, It has been difficult to identify by number. The truck has been underground for a while and the only visible parts numbers i can see is a 3 or maybe an 8 and a lot of deep scratches and rust.
DaveMcK38 - Thanks, and yes the bushing washer is definitely making contact. I think that that is the original mount up above it but there are also some holes blasted through the frame near there as well. I will try to get more pics up soon. Whatever has been done there looks pretty old and not right. It looks like The original mount was ripped apart due to excessive load, so they welded those tabs in and mounted off that then put some 12.5x15's on it, Which would have rubbed but that tab gives me an extra inch or so of lift. I don't trust it much and would like to make it right and put some tall chunky tires on the original rims and maybe look into a 1-2 inch lift if possible.
Joe H - Thank you for your help i will try to get some measurements soon.

Here is a pic of the rear from earlier. I will try to get more soon.

Ok, better pic. As I said before those shocks look like they are compressed most of the way. Not good. The bracket above has to be the original upper shock mount, and is obviously broken off. Back in the day trucks carrying campers quite frequently had load leveling shocks (coil overs) installed that put a lot more stress on mounting brackets, causing cracks and breaks, so I wouldn't be suprised if thats what happened here. Shouldn't be to difficult to fab a bracket to weld to the upper part of the original mount at the correct angle and cut that other mess off.

I doubt that the welded bracket above where the shock is now mounted is the original. It would likely be a stamped steel bracket riveted to the frame. I'd guess it would be very similar to the shock mounts on an AD truck. See attached pic.

Here's how it should be:
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/Unit...chure/slides/1962_GMC_Pickups-14-15.html

You may be right, just seeing that the brackets are identical on both sides and have the oblong hole in them lead me to believe they might be original. Looking at the pics closer I can see where the frame inside boxed area has been torched on both sides so quite a bit of cobbling has been done to this poor thing.
If you look close at the pic Gord posted it looks like the upper mount is a bolt through like the bottom so the shocks on there presently probably don't belong.

Yeah, the diagrams for shocks I see for that era truck have eyes and thru bolts on both ends (like Gord's link show). So the mount would be more like a "U" shape with the shock eye between them. Is your front shock mount welded to the frame or riveted? Hard to tell from your picture.

A caveat on the link to the brochure. It's a sales brochure, so it might not be accurate. A 1962 service manual would be best.

To me, the front looks like it has the same type of weld as the rear. I still think that the rear was probably the original but its hard to tell due to the bracket being bent and missing a chunk.

I bought my front shocks from NAPA. I wen to their web page and they actually had a listing for the available shocks to fit my 54 3100. I selected a set of Monore shocks for purchase online and pickup in store. They were sent from the local warehouse and ready for pickup in a couple hours.

But the OP has a 3/4 ton, which don't appear on many listings (old truck vendors, mainly).

I couldn't tell if the front mount was welded from the pic. But you may be right about the rear mount being original, as it doesn't look as redneck as the one the shock is connected to. It's a formed bracket of some sort, but I would have expected it to be riveted if original.

Well the front mounts are welded (looks factory) I can't tell if the rear welded ones are meant to be there or not. The pic from the brochure looks different when i zoomed in but i know it's just a sales thing. The holes blasted in the frame right above where the mounts are now confuse me, not sure why anyone would do that unless they were cutting something that was original out to make stuff kinda fit.

The holes on the inside line up with the smaller ones on the out side, which look like they were also made with a torch or maybe an existing hole was enlarged? Maybe they were going to try and mount the shock there and it didn't work. Shade tree mechanics at its best. LOL

yeah, I don't know what I want to do about it yet. My wife wants a lift and I'm all for it but i know there aren't any lift kits available for our truck. It's going to be tough to find the original mounting hardware and put that back in as well. I was thinking of stacking frames and welding a late 70's frame underneath, but that opens a whole other can of worms for the front end i.e. brake upgrade, power steering, steering column extended, driveshaft extended, ect.
so I'm kinda at a crossroads as to what to do. Money is always an issue as well.