Installing shocks - anything to look out for?

Should be straight forward, I see Scott includes spacers. You may have to pry the a-arm a little if you have much preload on the shock to get the bolt hole to align.

A lot of folks bolt on their $1500 investment and go, but IMO it does pay to set the car on a set of four corner scales and spend the time to setup ride height and corner weighting. Check wheel alignment (toe) as well.

As Julian says, corner-weighting your sports-GT is very worthwhile to improve handling, and its not just for racers. And watch closely the lower rear shock bushings for collapse with time. Those pieces are the most heavily loaded on the whole car, and it doesn't take much to allow the shock's lower steel bushing ring to sag & touch the steel bolt support brackets. Then you get a mysterious squeek that's very hard to trace.

Soft stock rubber bushings are probably most prone to do this (depending on how you drive) so firmer poly bushings may be less apt to develop squeeks. Check for missing paint, worn chrome or bare metal in that area. Undersized SAE shock bolts in factory metric holes might cut that clearance, too.

Thanks Julian and Jack!
Good stuff. I'll inspect the lower shock bushings.
I have a fresh set of ball joints and bushings as well as a lower shaft rebuild kit. We have a good suspension/alignment shop in town and I'll have them corner weight when they do the alignment.

I currently race a formula car and handle my suspension set-up. I doubt that one will realize any meaningful handling improvement by cornerweighting a Pantera. Frankly, it is a serious challenge with the driver and 20 gallons of fuel on the same side of the car.

The primary benefit of cornerweighting is braking. To not have the tire on one side lock up independently of the tire on the other when threshold braking in a straight line.

Frankly on a Pantera, I don’t think it worth the effort. Set the ride height and rake from the driver’s side and match the number of threads visible below the spring perches on the passenger side front to rear.

complicating the visual, is many Pantera passenger side fenders are ~ 3/8” higher above the tire verses the driver’s side.

I’ve spent days screwing around with Panteras on scales. IMO, not much to be gained.

Well I got the rears on today. Took a lot longer than expected. Scott included instructions about cutting away the top of the mounting tabs on the A-arms to clear the shock body. This took a lot of time as I didn't want to take too much off so it was a lot of filing and then checking. Turns out you need to remove quite a bit.
Here's how it ended up:


I'm fighting with the sway bar so I haven't driven the car yet but I'm really surprised how much it lowered the car. I forgot to get a "before" ride height but with these shocks I couldn't get my jack out without putting 2x4's under the tires.

More tomorrow when I do the fronts and hopefully get the rear swaybar back on.

Did you happen to measure the extended length (center to center of the bolt holes) of the old shock vs the new shock?

John

Extended is 15.2. Stock is 16.1.

stock shock length is too long for ride height everyone runs. John’s car being low is because he hasn’t adjusted ride height.

Lowering a Pantera much more than removing the DOT headlight height spacers will make bump-steer worse- and it can be in front and/or in back. Front bump is fairly easy to compensate with changes to steering rod heights. Rear bump is definitely not easy to correct. See the POCA article on what Johnny Woods had to go thru to fix it in a Mangusta.

Thanks guys.
Out of the box setting is way to low for me. It sure looks cool and I probably have 3 degrees more negative camber but the sway bar is literally resting on the exhaust.
I'm going to try to get closer to stock height by adjusting the spring length. Will report back.

Out of the box is, of course, too low. Every car is different. The ride height must be adjusted.

Here's an update which might be helpful for the next guy. For the rears (on my car, YMMV obviously) I put 48mm of space between the bottom of the collar and the beginning of the first thread on the body which got it to a nice height. Slightly lower than stock. 27" from the floor to the top of the wheelwell opening with Radial T/A 255/60-15's.

For the fronts, I put the same 48mm amount in and it actually raised the ride height about half an inch.

Put in a fresh ball joint while I was in there:

Thanks for the starting measurements and the overview of some of your pain points( trimming and sway bar). The rears seem a lot shorter than the QA1s I took off the car. I’ve been waiting to install these on the rear for longer than I care to say. Some last parts arriving soon and then I will finally be able to put the rear suspension together.

Fronts and back are the same, only difference is the spring rates ( I took Scott's recommendation and went with 300 front and 450 rear).
For the front, 36mm (again bottom of collar to the first thread) seems to be a good starting point that gave me a similar ride height (25" floor to top of wheelwell - Radial T/A 205/60-15.

These shocks and springs do seem to be the best alternative on a replacement.

I wonder what the thinking was in the original design of the extended ears on the tabs?

They don't seem to be necessary for anything?

Is the suspension travel limited by the shorter shock?

Biggest problem with replacement shocks is, NO ONE makes an exact replacement for the nearly 40-yrs-out-of-production Pantera. And the ones that fortuitously DO fit (or can be made to do so), are often designed for front engine cars, not mid-engined like the Pantera.

So the rubber bump-stops on- for instance, gas charged Konis- should be switched front-to-back. The short rubbers should be in front where more travel sifter damping and lighter springs are normally used. And if the shocks you want have different valving front & rear, the stiffer compression valving should be in the rear where 60+% of the weight is..That's opposite to front engine setups.

@panteradoug posted:

Is the suspension travel limited by the shorter shock?

Stock shocks have approximately 4 inches of travel. The Ridetechs have 4.1 inches of travel. The 1 inch shorter shock moves the mid travel of the shock down 1/2 of an inch. This puts the shock mid travel when at ride height.

@bosswrench posted:

Biggest problem with replacement shocks is, NO ONE makes an exact replacement for the nearly 40-yrs-out-of-production Pantera. And the ones that fortuitously DO fit (or can be made to do so), are often designed for front engine cars, not mid-engined like the Pantera.

So the rubber bump-stops on- for instance, gas charged Konis- should be switched front-to-back. The short rubbers should be in front where more travel sifter damping and lighter springs are normally used. And if the shocks you want have different valving front & rear, the stiffer compression valving should be in the rear where 60+% of the weight is..That's opposite to front engine setups.

Why would anyone want to make an exact replacement for a shock designed 50 years ago? There are plenty of manufacturers that make replacement shocks that have the exact same extended length and the  same compressed length. With adjustable dampening and correct spring rates, the ride is FAR SUPPERIOR to any Pantera with stock shocks. I have had customers feedback that the new Ridetech shocks have completely transformed the handling.

jtpantera - can you please elaborate on your statement above:

"complicating the visual, is many Pantera passenger side fenders are ~ 3/8” higher above the tire verses the driver’s side."

My early '72 has this issue - the passenger side ride height - front and back are approx 3/4" higher (measured from ground to body flange). I do not see anything obvious that is causing this based on some initial looks.

Any reason for this (I was going to do a separate post - but saw your response)?

I don't know the reason for the right side of many Panteras to sit higher over the tires when the suspension is balanced side to side.  It has been discussed previously on the  POCA Forum and there is only conjecture of poor alignment of the body panels during assembly in the jigs.

Frankly, it is not something most people notice unless they have performed suspension set-up.

FWIW, I heard there were THREE different assembly jigs, all of which were repaired during production. One also sees the effect of rt side anomaly when attempting to weight-balance the 4 corners, since it takes a bit more shock height adjustment on one corner than the other to get good balance. This is on '72 s/n 4366. I thought it might be unnoticed chassis damage by a P.O. Good to have another possibility- thanks, JT!

Zr1Pantera

You mentioned extended shock length of 15.2” and 4.1” stroke. Are these the 4.1” stroke shocks with the 1” extended eyelet mounts (15.230” extended length) ? Do you recommend these shocks for both front and rear applications ?

@hightech posted:

Zr1Pantera

You mentioned extended shock length of 15.2” and 4.1” stroke. Are these the 4.1” stroke shocks with the 1” extended eyelet mounts (15.230” extended length) ? Do you recommend these shocks for both front and rear applications ?

Yes, you are correct. These are perfect for front or back with the correct spring rate and dampening setting.

Thank you!

Is there any significant advantage to using the double adjustable v. single adjustable shock on a street car?

Does the dampening need to be adjusted or are the close out of the box on either?

Are they rubber bushings or poly?

Do you set the ride height at what you think is close?

I have my Koni's on the softest setting.

I have QA1 single adjustable on the Panetra and double on the GT40, I wanted the extra flexibility on the latter as it handled terribly with the Spax when I got it, but honestly in 15 years of ownership of the Pantera I have only corner weighted and adjusted the settings once, so I don't think there's a lot of advantage to the double adjustable on a street car.

The double adjustable QA1 part numbers are DD501 (bushing) or DD502 (Poly), single adjustable DS501 and DS502 respectively. The bushed shocks will require a spacer either side of the eye and most aftermarket shocks will have a 1/2" dia eye, not a 12 mm (0.471") Pantera shock bolt dia.) so there is a slight mismatch that the stepped spacers take up. I can send a drawing if you go that route and need to get the spacers made up. You can of course drill out the shock mounts and use a 1/2" dia bolt. I am running 550/450# spring rates on the GT5 in 12" length and would opt for 450/350 initially on the L when I get to it. Springs are $65 ea so not terrible cost if you want to play around with a couple spring rates. The GT5 fronts are set at their lowest height so I could probably get a way with a 10" spring and little bit more preload.

I noticed the difference in wheel well height openings on my car as well. The right front is also the most likely on my car to tick the front of the fender opening on the right side.

Everyone is assuming that there was an issue with the chassis jig being off but it may also be that the left and right fenders are not exact mirror images of each other?

I have also seen that on other low production cars and even mass produced like the Mustangs.

QA1 shocks are available from Wilkinson with stainless two piece adapters that allow the shock to simply bolt into the car.  The two piece adapter is slightly narrower than the shock mount on the chassis and a-arms.  I shimmed the adapters with washers for a nice fit.