Not sure why I am even bothering, as Gabriel stuff is universally panned here, but... I have these struts that are approx. 20 years old... my father never got around to installing them.
Best to just throw them in the garbage and get a new pair of KYB's or something?
Car is stock, garage kept and not driven much, but def. needs new struts.


I'm kinda surprised that something"made in the USA" is so crappy.

 

Id put them on and see what happens. If you toss them, you will always wonder "What If"?

 

Pop the hold downs off and see if they pop up to see if they still have a charge. Feel for resistance on the down stroke. better to test em before going threw all the install. my bet is the one the right is d.o.a.

 

No they're not really "that bad".

They're worse.

Butt hay, compared to 35-yr-old stock crap, who knows.

As eeeeeezy and freeeeeeeee and quick as putting em in would be, I'd say go ahead and do it, see what happens. Might be an improvement at least for a little while. That being one of the worst things about cheeeeeeeeeeeeep (and stock) dampers... if they are still even detectable after 10,000 miles as anything but dead weight at the corners of the car, you've just witnessed a miracle.

"Made in the USA" is a dangerous slogan. You MIGHT get something good, as opposed to the cheeeeeeeepest thing some random 3rd world military camp slave can throw in a box, and the seller won't go to jail for fraud for mislabelling it; OTOH you MIGHT ALSO get something in a plant slapped together to make World War 2 materiel of some sort, that hasn't even had the floors mopped since 1946. Don't forget after all, the ENTIRE CIVILIZED WORLD (and some parts that it could be argued aren't, or weren't at the time anyway) was bombed back to the Stone Age then EXCEPT the US and certain parts of Russia, so everywhere else, all the factories are at least newer. "Made in the USA" is WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY too eeeeeeeeezy of a slogan to abuse, to be reliable.

 

The one on the right has a shorter hold down on it. Not sure why it does, but that's why it is down further than the left one.
They do pop up and compress OK as far as I can tell

 

Shocks don't waar out from sitting in a compressed state. Unless they've lost their nitrogen charge, they are essentially brand-new...

 

I have an old set of gabriel vst struts that will be going on my son's 84. I bought them a long time ago and never installed them on my first 84 TA.

They can't be worse than worn out stocks. They won't be as good as some of the more expensive pieces though.

later,
Chris