KYB Gas A Just shocks, reviews?

Thinking about changing out my Monroe shocks for KYB Gas A Just.
Car is mainly a cruiser, no complaints with the Monroe’s, other than being 15 yrs old.

70 Challenger, 340, 0.92 BB torsion bars.

hi ,

save your money , kyb valving not mopar savy .

They feel good on my '66 Charger. 4150 lbs. with driver. No complaints here.

Got them on the front of my Savoy and I really like them. I have the Rancho adjustables on the rear set at #2 for street and #8 for the strip and gives me 1.51 60" times on M/T E/T Streets.
Gus

Do a real search here, I hate beating dead animals

I tried them on the 4 corners of my 65 Barracuda years ago. Worked well on the front with A body 383 T-bars but on the rear with SS springs I did not like them as much.

Now on my 84 Shelby they were great. And on the wifes Buick Regal too.

They are a horrible shock on a performance tuned suspension but they might work okay with the 0.92 bars. If you have low performance tires then a low performance shock will be okay since you'll never really notice the difference.

If you have performance tires and are looking for a performance shock then go with Bilstein, Fox or Koni.

Looks like mixed reviews, some like, others don’t.
Is harshness the main complaint?

KYB’s $100, Bilstein’s $500, are they 5 times better?

Or just get another set of Monroe’s?

Just get some more Monroe's.

Have used KYBs on my Mopars for years. They work great with stock suspensions. However I’ve found that when you start stepping up to bigger sway bars, torsion bars they don’t seem to keep up. I’m a big Firmfeel fan. The last several resto I’ve done I’ve done full tilt. The Bilstiens are the go to shock for me.

KYBs use digressive valving with high pressure nitrogen. This means they provide a large amount of resistance very early in travel that tops out and can't provide additional resistance as it reaches the end of travel. So this means on the small, rapid, high frequency bumps encountered on average roads, they can feel harsh, especially in cars of lesser weight, and on really large dips and constant, long, arcing turns they may feel good .

Yes, their valving turns the shock into a rock with high spring rates. The OP has 0.92 bars which are firm for factory settings but fairly soft by modern standards. The KYB shocks might work with those bars. With anything larger than a 1.00 inch bar the KYB shocks will make your car ride like an empty dump truck.

They are 5 times better if your car gets driven hard. They aren't if the car just goes to Bob's Big Boy once a month for ice cream. I put Bilsteins on my Dodge Ram truck when it was brand new since I thought the factory shocks were terrible. The truck only had a few hundred miles on it when I changed shocks. I bet 99% of the people who bought brand new Dodge Ram trucks kept the factory shocks on them. I've put multiple sets of shocks on my Coronet over the last few years just because I was looking for a certain feel. I finally decided that Koni shocks were the best of the best. There is no universal answer, it all just depends on what you're trying to accomplish. I will say that if you have never driven a car with good shocks then you don't know what you don't know.

I've got KYB on my E-body and it will be a one time deal. They are cheap enough, but if you value a quality ride, not worth the savings.

I've run Kyb's for years and have installed a couple hundred sets on customers cars. Only had one that thought they were to stiff.
Monroe's are absolute junk in my experience

They were okay on my Diplomat Police car. A bit firm but I didn't have a problem with them.

Make sure they are fully compressed and tied that way from the seller because what a B*tch they were to compress all the way to get on the front of my Diplomat!!!

Kyb too stiff..love my old school monroes..nice smooth ride

Amazing... 10 years ago everybody adviced KYBs Gas-A-Just ( or Just-A-shocks, whatever they call now ), now everybody claims they are too stiff.

However, everybody advices to get rid of the isolation systems on 73 and lates B bodies for a solid assembly ( but we are claiming about KYB Gas-A-Just stiffness )

we are becoming old LOL


10 years ago we had also the Edelbrock IAS shocks, but they were gone while ago

My first bad experience with KYB occurred in the late 80s with a 4x4 lift kit. Never recommended them since. I'm sure some folks are happy with them but typically what I've seen is their high pressure and digressive valving makes them an inexpensive crutch for inadequate spring rates.

I think as consumers we are getting more educated about suspensions now than many were ten years ago. 20 years ago I was selling suspension upgrades through my company and we sold 3x as many engine parts as we did suspension parts. Now there are entire companies out there dedicated to it. There just wasn't the broad demand for performance suspension systems then that there is today.

Commuter cars of today have more spring rate than muscle cars ever did in their day. It isn't that we are getting old and wanting soft rides, its that we want performance and control that provides a level of comfort and confidence, and its entirely possible to get that. But you won't get it for $50 a pair in shock technology from a company that has not updated their product in several decades.

I think we all have our own definitions of ride quality obviously, firm, stiff, solid, harsh, dump truck, soft, etc.
Harsh would be mine for the KYB's, and never again.

Choices have varied over the years. Before EIS and Bilstien off the shelf options were available, the choices beyond Monroe, Gabriel etc were KYB and Koni.
So a lot of us tried them because Koni's were a very serious commitment.
As Tony and others have said and explained, KYBs transmits quick wheel motion from things like uneven surfaces like cobblestone and RR tracks.
If there are no shock related issues now, then stick with what you have.

If you want less roll, then what is needed is a front sway bar.
If the car is not damping (keeps moving up and down several times after the input occurs), then find and replace the bad shock.

It's my experience that people who say 'KYBs are good enough', are the ones that never bought a better shock to begin with.
And they also think that a 'good' shock is a performance item only suited for racecars and it is dismissed right off the bat.

A performance shock can transform an old car's ride from a 'hobby project' to a more serious handling car.

Hence my camshaft comparison. Some will obsess over choosing the right cam. Shocks similarly control a range of functions of their supporting systems and more thought should go into their selection.

Yeah I went thru that whole process myself over the years. When I was younger I just bought whatever was handy such as Monroe shocks or something from Napa. I didn't really start to understand that shocks can have a big effect on how a car feels until I was a bit older and started to work with guys who were road racing. In those days even the drag race guys didn't care much about shocks other than length. The first time I really saw a big difference with shocks was when I put the Bilsteins on my truck. Those shocks totally transformed how the truck reacted to bumps at low speed. It was a very different driving experience. I then changed from cheap shocks to Koni shocks on my Coronet and was surprised at how much of a difference it made while driving around town. I wasn't racing the car, just driving around town with normal bumps and such in the road. I now consider a performance shock to be an absolute necessity on a car that I want to get in and drive.

Some cmparsons.
Car #1 - 1971 Dodge Charger, 0.96" Mopar Street Handling T-Bars, PST Sway bars, and KYB shocks.
The shocks / T-bar combination is fairly firm, but not harsh, but the car weighs 4,150 pounds.
With your 0.92" T-bars the KYBs should be fine.

Car #2 - 1969 Dodge Coronet Convertible. Same size 0.96" T-bars, stock sway bar, and the RCD Bilsteins.
The ride is not stiff, and is pretty smooth. Could use larger sway bars, but the convertible is a heavy beast, I think over 4,300 pounds.
Nothing bad about the shocks except the cost.

having a fully isolation suspension system on a 74 Charger, I'd wish to have the chance for KYB Gas A just shocks in all 4 corners. All the claims about how harsh is the ride with them, could be absorved by the isolation. So, would have the best of both worlds

Just a question, has anyone used SPAX adjustable shocks?
I'll by putting them on my '73 Jensen Interceptor.

I read someone said that KYB stood for Kill Your Butt.

KYB gas adjust shocks were excellent on my '97 extended cab Chevy 4X4. On my Avalanche they were gutless and a hazard to life and limb.

Thx for all the replies, I’m sufficiently concerned with all the harsh ride comments to not go forward with the KYB’s.
Most likely will get another set of Monroe’s.
Can’t justify spending $500 on shocks when the car needs so many other things.

I had them on my duster and liked them. I "upgraded" to hotchkis Fox shocks and am not impressed with the change. Maybe I got lucky with my exact combo i don't know. I can't say there is no difference, but I also can't say the upgrade was worth it.
The car is a 74 duster with 400bb, t56 trans, 1" t bars hellwig cromo front bar, delrin spring eye bushings, hd leafs, offset control arm bushings and a borgeson box. 245 45 17 front and 315 35 17 rear. I put the car together as a driver 10 years ago.

I had KYBs and hated them. Too harsh. I also had Monroe's. After 2 years with the Monroe's, the shocks started to "Porpoise". Went out and bought Bilsteins for the front. Best thing I did. I'm running the old Rancho 9000 on the rears.

I like rice with my Kemchee. I hate rice in my beer. But a Kemchee-Beer fart will kill within 50 feet of the blast zone.

Each person will have their own opinions. None are wrong, none are right.... for everyone.

I put Kong's on my RR because they are adjustable.

Been drinking a few of those beers tonight before posting this ?

I was waiting for "Can't we all just get along?"

I'm agreed on the $500 coment having other priorities ( I dream someday with the RCDs too but I'm also based on some other experiences ), but I think the KYB price worths the try and get your own conclusion for your own taste

Of course nobodies opinion is right or wrong. But you can take away something from threads like this. I know I have; KYB's are actually better than I thought. Most seemed to like for the money. You can spend a lot more and get a better shock.

If you're the kind of person who doesn't want a firm ride, then no. That's what I've taken away from this.

The KYB score so far if that matters:
4 harsh (I didn't add my unmentioned description, which would have been harshx2)
3 Stiff
1 Firm

Maybe the reason they work on my car is the slant 6 torsion bars I have SS springs on the rear so a firm ride is just part of the package but the Rancho shocks set on #2 seem to tame it down a bit.

Gus

Yes. That's what I'm using on my Barracuda.
I also have a fresh set as back up.

Just put 4 KYB's on my 79 300/Cordoba, Replaced the old Excel-G's on the front with new ones and Gas-A-Justs on the rear replacing what appear to be Sears load levelers (with the big springs) which were on the rear. Those rode like an empty dump truck. The new KYB's are real nice. The 300 has a pretty firm suspension but it's still basically a Cordoba so it seems to be good combination with the KYB's. I did lose the lifted rear end look the old load levelers gave it. Now the stance is level.

I’ve come full circle on this and decided to give the KYBs a try.
They have a $25 rebate going, and with RockAutos already great prices, I can get all 4 shocks for $90 including shipping.
Might be a while before they come in and I get a chance to install, but I’ll report back.

Don't take this the wrong way, from my experience, confirmation bias says you have a 60% chance of being satisfied with your choice.

Confirmation bias: The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

You have is backwards, I had no preconceived notions before this thread, after reading the replies I think there’s at least 60% chance I’ll be disappointed. For $90 I’m willing to take that 40% chance. We’ll see.......
I can always go back to the Monroe’s.

Backwards, forwards, does it really matter?
If life was so simple, what would we have to post about?

I had a set of kyb shocks on a 93 Dakota 318 club cab, 2wd. But not for long. They were wimpier than worn out originals that had NO response left. I swapped them out for a set of Gabriel Ultras and much better.
Gas a just is the middle of the road offering from kyb, there is another line they used to sell alongside of those, I have a pair (forgot which end of the car they are for) of the top of the line kybs in the attic still in the box for my F body that is too long in getting done. These are brand new but over 10 years old. They might be ok for that, I will try them because I have them once I get to that point.
But for a truck, even if it is just a Dakota, their shocks suck

I removed like some new KYB`s off my F body because they rode horrible. I put on some Monroes and I like the ride much better now.

Is there Gas A Just for F/M bodies ? or are they GR2s(Excel) series?

The question is WHICH Monroe's? Monroe matic(super cheap junk) or sensatrac or reflex or another version?
The other ones I have in the attic for my volare are sens a tracs. Got what I could from eBay for a good price at the time. I have 2kybs and 2 Monroe's in my stash at the moment for it don't mean that will be what winds up on the car