Red Pepper Racing

All I needed was a set of replacement shocks & I had 2 sets of rears, they were a set of NOS honda and a set of tokicos. I needed replacements after purchasing a vehicle that hadn't been driven in 17 years, & driving 1500 miles to PA didn't help. So I was forced to get new rear shocks. Problem is, I am cash poor. Necessity is the mother of invention. This is what I found.

I found that the 2wd shocks, use a spring perch, this would just not do, it had to go.

so I cut them off.

With that pesky springperch removed, I cleaned them up and sprayed them with some blue paint I had lying around.


Now, you may ask, well, if the springs are located in different locations, why did you have to remove the perch? Well I am glad you asked. I had to remove them, due to the 4 link suspension.


the spring perch made contact with it, and due to BRILLIANT DESIGN by honda engineers, they found it necessary to put hard brakelines right in line, where the perch would hit, effectively eliminating any rear brakes.

shortest "how-to" ever lol

Thats it? Youre not gonna show anything else?

Now,I also found that the 2wd shock is .75 inches shorter than the 4wd shock

this is what else I found out, the 2wd shocks vs the AWD/4wd shocks. the bolt diameter is larger in the awd version, by my estimates the awd/4wd have a half inch diameter bolt, where the 2wd is 12mm

left is awd, right is 2wd. My solution is to swap out the sleeves. I found out they were different when I went to mount them in the car and the bolt wouldn't clear the shock.

My main concern was that I wanted to drill them out to widen the sleeve, but a further fear of the material being inadequate for safety. So, I pressed them

I didn't remove the excess material because I wanted the fitment of the replacement to be tight.

and I made a delrin bushing to press back into the housing

and pressed them I did

I have to say, I got it all together, and yeah, it is kinda nice to have good shocks on the back.

Everything is nice and solid, although on a heavy dip, it does over extend and a small tap can be heard as the shocks top out.

Today, I added a few plate washers to keep the metal sleeve from shifting. Plus adding these, keeps the possibility of the delrin from shifting as well.

Now you may ask, bp, why did you do this? Well, I have a number of reasons

1) I am broke
2) There is NO, and I mean NO performance shocks for this car.
3) I knew it could be done. And if I couldn't, It would piss off alot of people, by tearing up a perfectly good set of Tokico's

Are the front only different due to length? If so could you get 2WD fronts too and just turn the t-bars down. Then figure out a shorter rear spring and lower the car in the back too to match the front also solving the topping out issue with the rear shock?

Funny you say that, but I didn't even bother measuring the fronts. I will tomorrow. as far as I know, that would be the only difference. Yes, all your statements are being looked at currently. If I knew the spring rate of the rears on the AWD, it would make it easier to find a replacement. I plan on tinkering with this over the coming weeks.

nice write up bff.

Ok, update. I will post my findings in a few days, but I have a potential rear shock setup. I need to do a test fit. I will keep you posted.

How's this coming along?

87-04 Mustang GT rear shocks will give you extra load carrying capacity, and are 3-12 dollars cheaper than stock.

And further research while breaking down the wagon for the scrapper has concluded that bilstein makes shocks for the aforementioned Ford gt. And I also know they make rear shocks for the e30 BMW 84-89.but you have to use your top bushings and washers for proper fitment. That's pretty much all I know about the awd wagon. I definitely will miss it.