Lakewood Drag Shock 50/50 Rear Mustang 2005-2014

If you've been following along our build of our 2013 Gotta Have It Race car, you can see we're pretty serious about getting this car in the tens without any power adders. So far we've managed an 11.05 at 122 mph using nothing but basic bolt-ons. While we've upgraded other parts of the rear suspension, we're still running the stock shocks which we think are probably hurting our 60-foot times, so today we're going to upgrade to pair of these Lakewood 50/50 drag shocks.

If you're into drag racing, you're probably familiar with the 50/50 drag shock. The 50/50 means that it's equal resistance both up and down, do a great job of eliminating wheel hop, allows you to put the power to the ground, as well. The shocks are sold individually and will fit your 2005 through 2014 Mustang; includes the bolt, bushings, and the washers. For this installation you'll need a jack and jack stands or a lift and a pole jack. We recommend the use of an impact gun, a 15 mm deep socket, and safety glasses. If you need to remove your sway bar, you'll also need a 3/8 ratchet, swivel, short extension, 14 mm deep socket, 14 mm shallow socket and a 14 mm wrench.

The top shock bolts are located in the trunk, so we're going to start our installation there. Obviously our car is kind of gutted for obvious reasons. Either way this panel will still remove the same way even if you have a full trunk. Once you pull the panel aside, that's the bolt we're looking to remove right there. It can be done with hand tools. It's a lot easier to do with an impact gun. Once you remove both nuts, you move underneath the car.

These are the things you run into sometimes on a modified vehicle. The bolt for your lower shock mount is right here. Normally it would come straight out. In our case, to fit our 15-inch race wheels, we had to relocate the sway bar upward which puts it right in front of pole. We'll have to remove our wheels to take the sway bar off so we can remove our lower shock bolt. We supported the rear to get the sway bar out of the way. You want to make sure keep it supported as you take the shock bolts out. And, remove our original shock.

The shock is going to ship compressed so you want to open them up before you actually install them on the car. Then we'll grab a single washer and one of the bushings and we're going to put it back on our Mustang. Put the shock up through the hole in the floor. We'll line it up with the bracket and reinstall the factory hardware. We're going to reinstall the factory nut. The factory nut has this plate that comes off the side of it. It's going to fit right in there and lock in. Make sure it's in there when you tighten the bolt back up.

Now we have both sides installed, we're going to reinstall our sway bar, and go up to the trunk and finish our installation. We're going to install the other bushing, followed by the washer and then the bolt on top. You want to make sure you keep the rear supported throughout the whole installation so the stud from the shock comes up high enough through the floor. You've got to get a washer and bushing back on it. This is another part where it's easier to use an impact gun. If you don't have one, you'll have to hold the top of the shock here while you turn the bolt. And, our installation is complete.

Now that we have our new Lakewood 50/50s installed, I can't wait to get back to the drag strip. Anything sub 1.50 60-foot should get us that ten second time we've been looking for. Installation should take you no more than about an hour. You'll be back on the road in no time.