How much shock travel is normal???

[brads2cl]

What is a normal amount of travel on the front shocks?? When I bolt them in I noticed that I have to compress it about 3 inches to meet the bolt holes. Is this normal with the car on jack stands and the arms completely relaxed? Any help is useful as this will start my second year in legends. Will post pics directly.

[brads2cl]

These are pictures with the shocks fully extended and the car on jack stands. So the a arms are as low as they can travel. I switched to a different ball joint and it helped a lot but still seems a bit short.

[racerrad8]

Make sure you have the lower control arm on the correct sides. The smaller tube , that the shock attaches to should pass under the larger tube.

There is an inch...

Randy - RPM

[brads2cl]

Yes, They are actually new and that's how it currently is set up. How much do you normally have to compress them?

[justfreaky]

Your jack stand is under the frame. The lower control arm is at full droop.
You have no spring on your shock; And the shock looks to be fully extended.
Yes, it will likely be short, depending on the length of the shock.

Jack the suspension up to a somewhat normal ride height position, and I'm sure things will look a lot better.
Not to likely that you will reach full droop or full compression unless you are doing some offroading,
Although, I have seen some pretty ugly dirt tracks!

How much actual shock travel you get will depend on the type of track you run on. Dirt tracks will likely require more shock travel than pavement.

Steve

[brads2cl]

So when you bolt your shocks on and the car is sitting like mine it is normal to compress the shock 3-4 inches, almost half of its travel, before it fits. Just doesn't seem right. Maybe it is just making sure. If someone has a car on the ground can you measure how much travel is left in your shock.

[justfreaky]

The shock should be somewhere about half way; So that you have a somewhat equal amount of compression and rebound.

Steve