Well folks, after three years, the Monaco is ready for her first extended outing. I have been working non-stop every day, to finish up the little nitnoy items that have been on the back burner, but some of the to-do things were must-do's.
Every original hardcopy Monaco brochure I have shows that their coaches came with Monroe air shocks in the rear. Well, I ASSumed that mine had been taken off and replaced with generic shocks at some point, so I ordered a new set of Monroe MA746 MaxAir shocks for the MB300.
Yesterday I pulled out the creeper and rolled underneath to begin replacement. One thing I couldn't find was where the original air line had been run....I searched the entire frame but there was no sign of air line clips or anything remotely resembling the remnants of air shock installation, so I figured they just ripped everything out. On to removing the generic shocks....
Removal was easy, as the bolts were in good shape. First one pulled right off, and I took a look at it....Maeco, hmmmm, never heard of that brand.....so I take it in to the garage and grab the brass wire brush and clean the dirt off......and there I see a Pentastar on the shock......holy ****, not only did the Monaco not originally have Monroe air shocks, it still had the original Mopar shocks that came with the chassis cab from the Warren Truck Plant #3!!!!!
So it's no wonder that the coach felt like it had zero rebound or deflection, the shocks were 44 frickin' years old. Installation of the Monroe MA746's was really easy. You get all new upper hardware, which includes the proper spacer to allow clearance from the frame, as well the necessary hardware to hook up the air. The only complaint I have is that they don't provide enough air line, only 9 feet. I made it work, but sometime in the future I want to get more air line and redo it.
The difference in ride is night and day. The MA746 shocks can be inflated to 150 psi, but the installation paperwork says not to keep the pressure above 120 psi for long periods of time, because it will weaken the mounting bolts; I've got them set to 100 psi and am happy with that.
Tomorrow the Monroe heavy duty RV shocks come in. I'm sure that I'll be happy with the final result, because anything is better than 44 year-old shocks. I haven't looked at the front shocks yet, but I won't be surprised if they're also the original Mopars.
I also painted and welded a new bumper on, because the original owner had hit something so hard that it twisted the old bumper and it was completely unusable. Tonight I figured that, since the bumper looks nice and pretty now, that I had to wire wheel the spare tire carrier and repaint it as well. Plus, I had to weld up a crack, where the spare wheel mounts. Everything is good to go now and the parts are hanging in the garage drying. I'll let them cure for the next couple of days and then reassemble.
No pics, because I just didn't have time, but when I'm completely done, I'll take some pics before I leave to go hunting with my father-in-law. He's decided it's his last year to go (he'll be 78 in January), so this is going to be a special trip.
One question, before I sign off....how are you guys and gals torquing the rear wheel lug nuts to 325 lb/ft????? (I'm splitting the difference between 300 and 350) I don't have a torque wrench that goes that high, so I took it to Discount Tire today, figuring they'd be able to do it, but they were only able to torque them to 225 lb/ft.
