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NOS Struts?

73k5blazer

73k5blazer

End the H1B Program!
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How reliable would circa 2001-ish NOS struts be?
I actually already bought them. They are for the front of my '89 STE. I didn't want a generic pair attempting to maintain the true "STE" experience and the GM parts books list different p/n's for almost every different version of every different a-body, and all the current aftermarket books list basically one set for almost all years all a-body's and all except one come as strut/spring combo. Spring rates are another point...all the aftermarket ones seems to be strut/spring combo, but the GM books again show lots of different spring rates depending on what engine, car, package etc..

My STE seems to be a bit weak up front, nose dives on hard brakes and a bit more bouncy than it should be, car only has 52kmi on it but i think they are just old and worn and the car sat for 15 years without moving. I found a NOS set of struts (no springs) for the front, but when they arrived, I can pull the rod out and it's fairly difficult to do so, but pushing it back in...is super easy. I cycled it a few times and it did tighten up quite a bit but still seems to be way too easy to push back in.

So....will these NOS front struts actually be ok? I don't do many struts and have little experience with them, and the ones I have done were the strut/spring combo units so I've no idea if your supposed to be able to push that rod back in easily or not.
In shocks, they always come tied down to have a shorter box and when you cut the strap they extend and it's really hard to compress them. After cycling them they did tighten up, you could hear girggling gas sounds inside and as that went away as you moved the rod up and down the tighter it got. They may do so alot more once actually installed. I dunno though. They are dated 06/2001. They are are the exact correct P/N for this car.
 
73k5blazer said:
How reliable would circa 2001-ish NOS struts be?
I actually already bought them. They are for the front of my '89 STE. I didn't want a generic pair attempting to maintain the true "STE" experience and the GM parts books list different p/n's for almost every different version of every different a-body, and all the current aftermarket books list basically one set for almost all years all a-body's and all except one come as strut/spring combo. Spring rates are another point...all the aftermarket ones seems to be strut/spring combo, but the GM books again show lots of different spring rates depending on what engine, car, package etc..

My STE seems to be a bit weak up front, nose dives on hard brakes and a bit more bouncy than it should be, car only has 52kmi on it but i think they are just old and worn and the car sat for 15 years without moving. I found a NOS set of struts (no springs) for the front, but when they arrived, I can pull the rod out and it's fairly difficult to do so, but pushing it back in...is super easy. I cycled it a few times and it did tighten up quite a bit but still seems to be way too easy to push back in.

So....will these NOS front struts actually be ok? I don't do many struts and have little experience with them, and the ones I have done were the strut/spring combo units so I've no idea if your supposed to be able to push that rod back in easily or not.
In shocks, they always come tied down to have a shorter box and when you cut the strap they extend and it's really hard to compress them. After cycling them they did tighten up, you could hear girggling gas sounds inside and as that went away as you moved the rod up and down the tighter it got. They may do so alot more once actually installed. I dunno though. They are dated 06/2001. They are are the exact correct P/N for this car.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be able to easily push them back in. In my opinion they shouldn't go bad from age, but those sound like they are shot.
 
"regular" shocks will not extend when the strap is cut, in fact there is no strap. Having said that, its been so long since I did a set of shocks, they may all be pressurized these days.
Back in the day, regular shocks could be compressed fairly easily, but were hard on the extend. If you bought special hard use or off road shocks, they were nitrogen pressurized to reduce or eliminate foaming of the fluid under hard use.
Whenever I put on a set of those, they were almost always a through bolt on the bottom and a straight shaft with bushings and a nut on top. So I would bolt on the bottom, put the bottom bushing on the shaft, and cut the wire or strap while aiming it at the hole.
IF your struts are the pressurized type, then the pressure has leaked out. They might still work surprisingly well though. As I say, shocks are not really designed to resist downward motion, that is what the springs are for.
They are supposed to dampen the rebound. If your pressure has leaked out but the fluid is still there and all the valves and seals are good, then they might do OK unless you are really pounding on them fast.
Then the fluid might aerate and cause a temporary decrease in effectiveness.

The exception to the rule, is a steering stabilizer. They look like a shock mounted sideways, but have dampening in both directions.
 
Who's to say some "new" struts haven't sat on some warehouse or store shelf for decades before you bought them ?...parts typically dont have "best if used by" dates...
Some shocks we sold at the parts stores said "store only horizontally" and in a cool dry place"..all the stores I worked at were like 100 degrees in summer and 20 in the winter,and the shocks got stored whatever way they fit most of on the shelf best!..ditto for brake rotors that said on the boxes "never store in a vertical position"..they sit vertical on the car,with a few thousand pounds on them,If they warp just sitting on a shelf,I don't want them on my vehicle!..

Its not uncommon for struts or shocks to compress easily,even gas pressurized ones,Fordum is right when he says they control rebound by being difficult to extend,and only steering damper shocks will have 50/50 resistance in both directions..
As long as those NOS struts show no sign of leakage at the pistons,I'd say they are probably fine..I have bought "new" Monroe Magnum shocks at swap meets that were 20+ years old,in the original boxes and they still looked brand new,no rust on the pistons or leakage and they worked out great...
 
campfire said:
Cool. What do you do with the rare bird? I've never even heard of one outside this board.
Click to expand...
The same thing we do with our K5's, spend money we probably shouldn't on them, and drive it.So far I've had to completely clean out and redo the fuel system (tank, senders, filter, pumps, injectors), TCC solenoid, A/C, alternator, cooling system, tires, alignment, air ride system (not complete)....
I took it out to W. Michigan to a family reunion two weekends ago, and I took it down to Ohio to a customer after I fixed the TCC solenoid, between those two trips it was about 1000mi. It's kinda stupid, but I really love driving that car, it's not fast, most don't consider it cool looking (i do), but it's clean no rust, everything works as designed for the most part, I converted the A/C to HFC152a so that works awesome, and the seats....with the 3 position adjustable lumbar....love them. I put in some of my mixed tapes I still happen to have had that I made when I was 16 and it's just fun to drive.
Last winter I took it down to my Ohio customer in a big snowstorm. She's alot of fun out on the snow covered roads with it's awd and 4 channel abs! Just gotta keep it washed up right away or it'll rot away.
 
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beags86 said:
Time for a picture.
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(you can click on the 1st one for giant size)


WP_20161216_23_44_22_Pro_1_.jpg
 
They only built something like 1376 of them. They modified a TH125C for a 60/40 torque split, took an S10 front diff and turned it upside down and stuck it in a carrier in the back with a transverse fiberglass leaf spring (ala corvette style) assisted by some exotic air struts back there (that you can't find and mine leak down kinda quickly..) and independant suspension.
And you can lock the center diff too!!

Looking rearward from the front. They cut out the middle of the tank and required it to have two senders and a weirdo transfer mechanism run from the main pump, some jackhole tried to fix it before me (when I got the car you couldn't let it get down more than 3/4's tank) and just cut the exhaust in multiple places. I've since fixed this all up with a renu'd tank, new senders, pumps etc...and cleaned up the exhaust and put a real NOS muffler back on (they had some generic family muffler on it) so it has that STE rasp to it.
D-shaft is really funky, a cv style carden joiunt up front, a double carden jouint in the center, and a regular joint to flange in the back.
WP_20170121_14_12_36_Pro.jpg

WP_20170303_22_10_44_Rich.jpg

s-l1609.jpg
 
Huh, that's cool.
I know you want to keep it original but a 3.8 supercharger would be cool on that thing.
 
beags86 said:
Huh, that's cool.
I know you want to keep it original but a 3.8 supercharger would be cool on that thing.
Click to expand...
Well, when I ask people what mods can I make to the 3.1 to bring it's HP up a bit, the inevitable answer is always, swap in a 3.8. But the 3.8 won't bolt to the th125, which of course is also the transfer case so I have to keep that. Some people have put a 60 degree 3500 from late 2000's in, not seen it on one of these awd's, but I've seen them in other a-bodies.
The stock setup is rated 140hp/185ft/lbs, which for the era, isn't bad, considering corvettes and mustangs weren't even getting to 200hp then. Now a new minivan has 300hp under the hood.
I have put a K&N air filter on it, and I think a set of some headers would help it and perhaps ditching the cat, although it already had from the factory one of the new style smallish high flow cats on it, but it's old...i may remove it, it already has an exotic two piece intake manifold with really long runners. I think some ECM mods are possible too.
For a couple years GM had a 60 degree in the grandprix with a turbo and I think those were pushing 160-165hp IIRC, some people have cobbled that onto this, but I hear it's quite the fit in an a-body.
 
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Oh, it's not a 3.8. I guess I assumed it was for some reason.

3.1 huh, well they made a 3.4 that was based off the same engine. (I believe)

Pretty sure the 2.8,3.1, 3.4 we're all the small family. So you could maybe swap a 3.4 , or get the stroker kit.

http://www.engine-parts.com/gmv6/gmv6ps1.html

I was thinking it was a 3.8 so you could just swap a supercharger on it and still be able to to swap it back easily if needed.
Unless I am going to hog wild I would probably keep it as it.

Since it is so rare is it really worth anything?
 
beags86 said:
Oh, it's not a 3.8. I guess I assumed it was for some reason.

3.1 huh, well they made a 3.4 that was based off the same engine. (I believe)

Pretty sure the 2.8,3.1, 3.4 we're all the small family. So you could maybe swap a 3.4 , or get the stroker kit.

http://www.engine-parts.com/gmv6/gmv6ps1.html

I was thinking it was a 3.8 so you could just swap a supercharger on it and still be able to to swap it back easily if needed.
Unless I am going to hog wild I would probably keep it as it.

Since it is so rare is it really worth anything?
Click to expand...

Yeah the 2.8,3.1,3.4 and ultimately the 3500 found up to 2010 are all 60 degree variants of the same engine more or less. The 3500 of course heavily modified for VVT, but still it's roots are the same, but it isn't a straightforward swap, the 3.4l I guess is fairly straightforward swap.
Yeah don't want to swap but if there's some ways I can get 5 or 10 or a bit more hp out of it, i'll do it.
What's it worth...whatever someone is willing to pay! This is by far the lowest mileage one I've ever seen and it's in the best shape of all the ones I've seen come up. Most are very rusty and practically gone/not worth saving. Most were sold in the rustbelts and have long since rotted away, not sure there are many left out there. It's kinda like driving a vintage prototype.
 
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