The shocks on my recently-acquired 52 Willys Aero Lark were apparently original - they had "The Monroe Shock Absorber Company" stamped on them. They were completely worn out.
The rear shocks were easy to find - Monroe 31094. They're listed in the Monroe cross-reference, and fit fine. Do NOT lose the hardware in/on the old shocks - the new ones do not come with bolts, steel bushings, or anything else that you can use. The upper bolts have "thin" nuts that are a bit hard to get started, but nothing unusual about changing the rear ones.
The front ones, on the other hand, are not listed anywhere. After looking through the complete Monroe e-catalog, I decided that the best candidate is Monroe 32267 shocks - they're a bit longer and fatter than the original, but have similar compressed and extended dimensions. They have a "loop" bottom end, and a "stem" top end, like the original. The other nearest candidate was a Monroe 5753 "Sensa'Trac", but it's about an inch longer than the 32267, and it's not a "Monroe-Matic", like the 32267 is.
The 32267 has a dust shield on it; no way it will fit through the upper wishbone. Application of a 4" grinder with cut-off wheel to the dust shield will cut it loose from the shock shaft. A bit of grinding with a bench grinder and application of a bit of paint fixes that end; use of a bench grinder on the rubber part of the loop (to make it the same thickness as the steel spacer in the bottom of the old shock) will make that end fit.
As stated before, do NOT lose any of the old parts; you will need some of them, especially the steel spacers.
The bottom bolts on the front shocks were thoroughly rusted into the wishbone arm, and to the lower shock spacer - I could get the nut off, but the bolt would not turn or budge. Everything I had (socket wrench, impact wrench, heat, solvent, etc.) had no effect. Fortunately, my son has an air hammer with associated tools; hitting the bolt with about 15 strokes a second will make pretty much anything turn loose! Make sure you have one of these available if the shocks appear to be original. I replaced the bolts with 7/16" Grade 8 bolts from Lowe's - that's the only type they had that were 7/16".
Once you perform all the modifications, and get the lower bolts to come out, the new shocks go back in easily.
Just thought I'd post this in case some other Aero owner is looking for front shocks, and what it takes to replace them. Apparently, some of the other Aero's use loop-loop front shocks (like the ones on the rear of my Aero); mine uses loop-stem shocks on the front.
Just looked back in my paperwork - a couple of other Monroe numbers that would probably work are 32235 and 31029.
Dave E
Madison, MS
