FRONT & REAR SHOCKS for '88 Crown Royale Series, R-600 Roadmaster Chassis

[SKYMASTER]

Thought I'd cross-post what I've found out so-far on shock absorbers for our 36' Monaco with R-600 Roadmaster Chassis (5.9 Liter Cummins). This coach has a GVWR of 21,000 lbs. Looks like Spicer-Dana built the front & rear axle & suspension systems for fitment on the R-600. The shocks presently on the rig are '4-Way' with a number of '640198' and they're yellow with a 5/16" diameter blue colored overload spring with castings at the top of the shock and at the top connection point. The connection points are eyelet type bushings that appear to be 1/2" or 9/16" diameter. The front shocks mount on the wheel side of the leaf spring via a shock-pin. My right side shock was just hanging and the shock-pin missing, so I'm thinking about using a 6.5" X 1/2" Grade 8 bolt with a 1" spacer to reattach if I can't locate a normal shock-pin. Any ideas?? (If I could figure out how to post a picture... but it only allows me a URL to import from!)

I had an interesting talk with the Monaco parts department guy this afternoon down in Oregon, and he was able to use an 'older' computer with an old version of 'DOS' and came up with a couple of original part numbers for our '88 units. The original OEM shocks were made by 'NEWAY' and they're apparently still in business. The front shocks have a part number of 90044794 and the rear shocks are 90044769.

While you will find those numbers with a Google search, I never could find a source where to buy them, and calls to NAPA and a couple of other local shops didn't net me any results. I finally ended up going thru a couple of other searches to cross-reference the OEM numbers and came up with numbers to both Gabriel and Monroe, however, I'm still not for sure if these cross-reference number are correct or not.

The FRONT shocks cross-reference to Gabriel FleetLine, #83127 which also cross-references to Monroe #66633. Gabriel specs these with extended length of 20.12 inches, compressd length of 13.13 inches and a 6.99" stroke. The rebound rating is 940-lbs and a compression rating of 218-lbs. The only place I could find Gabriel shocks was Autozone and they have to special order them with a 4-day delivery and priced at $41.99.

On the Monroe 66633, the specs are an extended length of 20.75 inches, a compressed length of 13.75 inches and a 7.00" stroke. The rebound rating is 812 lbs. The eyelet at each end is coded as 'LS54' which looks to be 3/4"... which seems too big, as I recall the bushing size is between 1/2" and 9/16", so again, I'm not sure.

I also spoke to parts gal at a National Auto Parts store and she cautioned me on cross-referencing numbers. She seemed to think that the closest match was a Monroe #65143 that has an extended length of 20.25 inches, compressed length of 13.25 inches, and a stroke of 7 inches. This one shows a 5/8" bushing size in the eyelet ends and has a rebound rating of 708 lbs. There are two additional numbers in this series, one with #65144 with a rebound rating of 882 lbs, and a #65145 with a rebound rating of 1270 lbs. All the rest of the specs read the same. I was quoted $108 apiece for the #65143 on special order... and $62 apiece for the #66633, also a special order item.

The trouble with all of these is that nobody has them in stock, so you can't pull one off the shelf and maybe even take it and see if it'll fit. Autozone told me they'd refund the purchase if they special ordered the Gabriel's and they didn't fit... but that might be a sales gimmick just to get the sale. Who knows!