Monroe Shocks to fit 1938 - 1950 DPCP vehicles

[desoto1939]

The other day i was helping a friend find replacement shocks for his 1939 Desoto.  This gentleman is 83 years old and di not know what brand of shocks and or shock number he could find to replace the front and rear shocks.

 

I knew that the Monroe shock company did make replacement shocks.  I also have seen shocks listed on Ebay or in this case E payout for prices that are out of this world. Ihave seen a pair of shocks going inthe $200 range. Our Mopar DPCP shocks are standard airplane shocks.

 

If you sign onto the Monroe web page: www.monroe.com you can do a year and model shock look up. So most of you know I collect cross reference catalogs and in one of my older MoPar Shock catalogs it lists that from 1938-1950 the Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler cars all used the same front shocks and from 1937 to 1950 they also used the same part number for the rear shocks.

My friend was able to get the Monroe shocks for around $35-40 each as compare to the out of this world listed prices on Ebay.

 

The front shock number is # 5752  and the rear # is 31000.

 

I have also posted my copy of the information from my Mopar Shock catalog and also the information that I copied from the Monroe webpage..  So, if you are in need of new shocks check with you local parts house to see if they can order in the sets for your car and save a ton of money.  Most people are not willing to investigate and take the time to get the same part at a cheaper price than what is listed on Ebay.

 

The cost of the catalog that I purchased several years ago has paid for itself because of being able to help a friend save a major amt of money and also passing along valuable information to other MoPar owners.  So always look at a vender's stack of literature when at a swap meet.  You never know what you might find for a couple of dollars. Most of these paper catalogs are being destroyed and sent to the land-fill.  Preserve the history for your own education and to help pass the information along to others. 

 

About 6 years ago I was at an early spring indoor swap meet and found at a venders table two McCord gasket catalogs that were brand new. They covered the years from 1909 - 1936 and from 1937 into the 50's.  I asked the vender what is the price and low a behold he said $1.00 each.  I purchased these two very brand new catalogs for $2.  I have seen these same catalogs go for over $50-75 on ebay.  what a great source of information for $2.  I have gone to other swap meest and have found Mccord gaskets to fit my car becasue the vender did not know what they had.  The $2 expense has been worth a ton of knowledge.

 

Hope this is helpful information.

 

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com  

1938-50 Monroe Shocks.pdf

Edited October 23, 2023 by desoto1939

[Ivan_B]

Thank you for the information. I think rockauto sells them as well. Anyway, I've seen cheap Monroe shocks somewhere. Wanted to replace mine, but then concluded that the old ones were still good (the car does not seem to bounce). If I am not too lazy, I might take them off for additional testing some time in the future.

[Doug&Deb]

Thanks for the info Rich. I always appreciate your research.

[Plymouthy Adams]

those shock numbers have been posted on here several times over the years.......along with the number for the air shocks if someone was interested.  

[KLyons]

Thank you Rich for those part numbers. I have many old catalogs and consider them gold for finding parts like that. It just takes a little more effort by well worth it.

[desoto1939]

On 10/23/2023 at 6:36 PM, Plymouthy Adams said:

those shock numbers have been posted on here several times over the years.......along with the number for the air shocks if someone was interested.  

Plymouthy:  Yes I know they were posted before.  But since I was working with a friend to get shocks for him I figured it would not hurt to repost the info.  If a new member just joined the forum he might not even think about looking for information on shocks.

 

Just trying to post an FYI for the members.

 

Hope you are doing well.

 

Rich Hartung

[Plymouthy Adams]

I did look in the reference section and am surprised that after all these years the info was not archived there for people searching this out....many also do not even want to do a search though it is not a hard task given the forum is basically user friendly.  Maybe GTK would incorporate this info in the reference section.  Off the top of my head I do not recall either the Monroe or Gabriel air shock number but for sure...also searchable if one looks.....just pinged the forum,  Monroe by direct application chart for the rear shocks are MA727  

[Sniper]

Be nice if someone too the time to put together an index for various areas with stuff like this in it. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

Personally, I thought this had been done so so long ago on the technical pages.  This comes up so very often for stock shocks across the counter availability.  The next shock issue is when a member unties the upper and lower a-arms and goes to the frame....but without a template of specific locations and style of the upper hanger once taken to the frame....that would be a hard one to pin down as so many folks do so many different approaches. 

 

I see Rich just submitted a Monroe reference page, thanks for that, hope it does help someone down the road.

[Sam Buchanan]

Thought I would be a nice guy and post the shock part numbers in the Tech section of the forum but couldn't find a way for a non-admin to start a new thread.

[desoto1939]

Also another nice thing about the Monroe Site is that you can go to their technical link and then select the Mounting and Length Chart information.

 

If you know your specific shock number it tells you the type of shock attachment on both ends also the compressed and extended lengths.

See shock number 5752 which is the front shock for our car Notice the end code L1 and L1 so that mean loops on both ends.

The 5753 is l1 and s4 with a rod with a nut to hold the upper part of the shock in a shock tower.

 

Also note that it tells you the compressed and extend lengths of the of the shock and also the travel limits

 

So if you need the 31000 information to to the same link and then scroll down to find that specific info and if you go to the bottom then you can get

info on the loop diameter information

 

Just shows what info can be found if you do some searching.

 

Rich Hartung