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Folks, my commuter car is in the shop so I have been driving the old iron this weekend. Been using the 52 for fancier trips and the 50 for the kid’s baseball games hauling all the gear. It’s good to get the trucks out.
on the 52, it starts out smooth but after a while, maybe 20 minutes, starts to get bouncy. Almost like my tire pressure is sky high, although I start out cold at 30 psi. I felt the front tires and they are hot. Does that sound like a toe problem causing heat in the tire and high pressure? I have the heavy duty front springs that give it a little more stance/ lift and they are new. The shocks are NOS originals. Thoughts?
Are you running radials or bias ply? That sounds like b.p.'s getting warmed up. Is it bouncy like porpoising, or excessive reaction to sudden bumps? I also have the extra leaf up front, and also have larger, heavy tires. I went to a much heavier duty shock and don't get any bounce. The stock shocks are pretty minimal-sized units and 70-yr-old technology.
Low tire psi will heat the tires up and heat kills tires.
It is easy enough to check toe with a tape measure and helper.
Quick and dirty way is to measure the same places on the tire front & rear.
The front measurement should be 1/16 to 1/8 inch small than rear as a start.
Also NOS shocks could be NG from the get go.
As the move from use over bumps the oil heats up pushing pass seals and it no longer "shocks" like it should.
Also dose the truck have shocks front & rear?
Some Fords only had front shocks.
Dave ----
Yes, shocks were likely junk when they came from the factory, (as are most of today's mass marketed off the shelf big box shocks). The oldstyle oil quickly foams and cavitates when hot, were not designed for long distance high speed driving, were just to keep the springs from bottoming out bouncing down the dirt roads @ 25MPH to work or the 5 miles to town. Buy a quality set like from Koni, Bilstein, or QA1 and see the difference a good shock makes.
I don't recall what tires you have, and as mentioned, type will make a difference. When you said NOS shocks, that was a concern to me. NOS shocks are fine for a show truck where you're looking for that last judges point. It's not something I'd want on a driver. The valving could have deteriorated over the years from sitting so you really don't have any 'shock' action. Following up with what others have said, they were never of a high quality when they were new, and likely less so today.
Because of my higher front stance, I measured the static extension and added about 2" up/down to look at specs on shocks. I ended up with these; Gabriel 77405 Max Control, which are gas-charged monotubes. They work well. You can see the difference in piston diameter compared to the original-spec (red) shock.
I don't recall what tires you have, and as mentioned, type will make a difference. When you said NOS shocks, that was a concern to me. NOS shocks are fine for a show truck where you're looking for that last judges point. It's not something I'd want on a driver. The valving could have deteriorated over the years from sitting so you really don't have any 'shock' action. Following up with what others have said, they were never of a high quality when they were new, and likely less so today.
I think it is the shocks. Makes sense and probably why I have the bounce. I have a new set from NAPA to swap in. 52 Merc, the tires are Firestone wide white bias ply tires from Coker.
Not a cause for the bounciness, but are the rims (not tires) hot too? If yes, the heat in the tires could be coming from excessive heat from the brakes.
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