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Showing posts from June, 2020

Getting your shocks fixed is more than just absorbing the road, wanna know why?

Answer:  Shock absorbers are an integral part of a vehicle’s suspension. A shock absorber is designed to absorb or dampen the compression and rebound of the springs and suspension. They control the unwanted and excess spring motion. Shock absorbers keep your tires in contact with the road at all times. Before going any further, let’s discuss some key terms that will help us understand how shock absorbers work. Back in elementary school we learned about energy, more specifically, we learned about potential and kinetic energy. We also learned about the Law of Conservation of Energy. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change forms. Potential energy is stored energy and kinetic energy is energy in motion. Now, let’s get back to shock absorbers. When you hit any bump or dip in a road, your vehicle’s suspension and springs move so the tire can stay in contact with the road and absorb the energy. The shock absorbers damp...

Diagnosing the Two Basic Types of Front Suspensions

Your strip burner has one of two basic types of front suspensions holding it to the road.  Most cars produced before the mid-to-late seventies were equipped with what we call a parallelogram type suspension, while most passenger cars produced since then have had rack and pinion suspensions.  The easiest way to describe the differences between the two is to describe the mechanism that actually pushes the wheels left and right as you steer.  Parallelogram suspension uses a steering rack to steer. A typical steering gear box. The Basic Parts of a Parallelogram Suspension Other than the steering column, which both suspension types share, there are two “sections” of a parallelogram steering suspension: the worm gear/steering gear box and the parallelogram assembly.  The steering parallelogram assembly consists of: Four tie rod ends-two inner and two outer An idler arm mounted on the passenger side of the vehicle A Pitman arm mounted to the bottom of the steerin...