EAI Air Cylinder Installation
Installation By Mitch D.

These cylinders are from Hack Shack and are called their 4x4 cylinder. So far they have proven to be reliable and contrary to belief they right pretty well on the Thunderbirds. I really couldn't tell any difference in the ride for the short time was in Travis' bird. I could be very related to pressure, this might not be so if they are locked up. As far as reliablity, we will have to get back to you. Nick has had these same cylinders the longest and I haven't heard anything about it yet. The only draw back is the pressure required to lift the front of a Thunderbird with cylinders. It was some where in the neighborhood of 175psi to get them to lift. So a small pumped air system would be out of the question. A bottle would be best. They can hop the front about 4" with a bottle, the right line and va'ves.

(click on any pic to enlarge)
The stock front struts need to be removed and dissassembled because the stock upper mounting plate is used for the cylinder install.
These are the parts for the top mount. Mitch had to mod the top bushings supplied in the kit.
You will need to use the side, top, port of the cylinder for your air fitting. This top port needs to be plugged so the upper mount can be put on the cylinder.
Top bracket (supplied w/ cylinders) mounted.
In this pic you can see that the bushings hit the port where the plug goes. The bushings needed to be gound down a little bit.

Before you can install the stock upper mount you wil need to drill otu the denter of it. The bolt supplied with the cylinders is a larger diameter. Above is what the completed assembly looks like.

 

Note : the open lower port will pull and push air depending which way the cylinder is moving. You should put a muffler in that port so no road debris gets in there and scores the shaft.
The lower brackets supplied with the cylinders work but are too long and need to be modified to get the car where it needed to be. Mitch cut them shorter and drilled his own mounting holes.

The lower bracket threads on to the shaft. here is a jamb nut that you can tighten againist the bracket so it won't back out of the bracket. Mitch also used loctite on the threads. You could even put a tack weld on that jamb nut to the lower bracket so it will never loosen up.
( Just trying to be safe )
This is where Mitch chose to run the air line to the valves in the engine compartment. You can run it almost anywhere you want to.
Use either a factory lower bolt or a Grade 8 bolt here. Do not skimp here! Its the only bolt that holds the cylinder to the lower arm.
As with all the other front installs, to get the most drop you can cut a hole in the strut tower for the upper ball joint to pass through. Usually this is good for another 1/4" of drop.