I recently bought myself a Moser 12 bolt and was taking out the GM 7.75" 9 bolt that I had gotten from an 88 GTA Trans Am a year or so back so that we could install the new rearend when we noticed what's in this picture. The shock had ripped a piece out of the body inside the car and out of the frame work inside the hub. Has anyone else ever encountered this.

 

its pretty common.

 

Yeah, that ain't normal. When I swapped my shocks, the hole was only like 0.5" across... not 1.5" across. lol

I have never seen that happen before. Would you just weld in a new piece of metal and redrill the hole? It makes me wonder if I should try and do something to strengthen that area.

Mike

 

Not overly comon on a car that does not appear to have a lot of rot/rust, but otherwise, fairly comon for these cars and their age. It's only very thin sheetmetal and with the load the shock has placed on it these past 17+ years it tore.

Weld a piece back in that covers a good distance out and around the hole. Drill a new hole for the shock to mount and go on with it. - This is why it is so important to brace everything if you switch to coil-overs.

 

But if the hole isn't in the exact same spot, won't it alter the suspension characteristics?

 

No. Shocks aren't all that picky about the placement. Within a 1/4" and you'll be fine.

sofakingdom mentioned this as being pretty common back in the day (in his old posts)...

 

I've had that happen on two of my 3rd gens. And seen it on a few that I've scrapped out. To prevent that from happening on my 88, I welded a thick washer over the hole for each shock.

 

Usually happens when coilovers are used and no reinforcement welded in

 

This was done by a regular shock. It ripped a piece out on the underside in front of the coil spring too. I'm probably going to cut a piece out of anther 3rd gen f body and weld on top of it on both sides and weld a piece of thicker sheet metal on the inside.