Shock options for mini tub?

I moved my springs in 3" on each side of the rear on the 65' Mustang. The angle from the body hole to the spring perch has changed and it causes a bind on the Rancho 9 ways when installed in the original holes. The Rancho's are also bottomed out on compression. The Ranchos have stock type studs on both sides.

I tried it out anyways and broke the ear off the bottom of my Caltrack lower spring perch. Now I'm stuck. How do I fix the angle problem? Anyone know of a shorter adjustable stud mount shock than the RS99204?

To answer my own question and hopefully help others who might find themselves in this predicament, here are my findings:

The Rancho RS99204 is their shortest rear shock for stud mounting on both sides. There may be some front shocks that would be shorter and would bolt to the rear, but they would not offer enough travel.

Here is an excellent resource for specifications about Rancho Shocks: http://www.gorancho.com/assets/catalog/Specifications.pdf

Here is the solution to the problem, as given by Alex of Moneymaker Racing. First swap the stud mount spring support of the Caltracs for eye type as used on Leaf Spring Mopars (Calvert MT3 RH and MT4 LH):



Then replace the RS99204 double stud mount shock with one that has a stud top mount and a bottom eye mount:



Note that Calvert racing has taken over the original Rancho 9 way adjustable 9000 series of shock and now sell it under their own name and # system.

Here is the part # used:



Together these parts offer a little over 1/2" more compression travel before bottoming out. I now have a total of 1.250"+ of free travel from when the car is on its own weight until the shock is bottomed out. About 1/4" was gained by the shock and the rest was gained by the lower shock eye of the spring support.

Here are some misc photos for those who are interested. The Calvert Shock:



(Probably the old Rancho RS99136) Shock length comparison between the RS99204 and the CR42123:





You can see that the eye is a little higher than where the normal mount would be located between the grommets of the stud mount shock. Spring plates compared:







New setup installed on car:





Additional clearance could be gained by adding more length to the spring plate shock tab and drilling another hole either lower the the original, or closer to the springs.

mtaqua said:

Wicked65 can you post pics, same issue here.

Click to expand...

I would like to see a photo too as I had originally considered this option, but couldn't decide the best way to do it.

Nice and beefy-should work great!

Thanks for the photos.