After 75,000 miles I replaced my original front struts with Suncore air struts. These went bad after two years. The rubber mounts broke and the hydraulics leaked. I replaced these with a popular brand I read about here. These lasted a little past the warranty before the hydraulics leaked. The guy at the place gave me a good deal on the coil spring conversion. The springs went soft and the hydraulics leaked. I replaced that with the coil-over Sensatrac struts. The springs have gone soft on those now. Nothing has been anywhere close to the OEM.

I have found a good price for the OEM Motorcraft struts at Rockauto. There is a discount code on this site that works for 5%. You have to do a part number search as they are not entered correctly in RAs database.
AVS16 is RH side.
AVS17 is LH side.
The come with new solenoids.

I will be installing mine tomorrow.

Yes, I drive hard and fast on a rough mountainous road

I just wanted to add some information for those like me who had to use black belt search-fu to find this out.
Lincoln Mark VIII, Mark 8, front suspension, F7LZ3C098BA, F7LZ3C098AA.

Hi Lance,

I'm getting ready to order some struts from Rock Auto, too, but didn't see where the solenoids were included on their web site. Was that just a one-time special deal?

Thanks!

Must have been a special deal - just heard back from them and the solenoids are NOT currently included with the struts. Still going to order from them, though. They have the best price for OEMs everywhere I've looked.

They never said they had the solenoids on them, they just did. Yours might too.

I bought pair of OEM FoMoCo Air struts about 3 years ago and they are still perfect and they DID come with the solonoids. They had an AVS part # but I dont think that this matters. They call it "Air strut assembly" probably because it IS a complete bolt in unit. Could someone over the years have opened a box sitting on a shelf and "stole" the solonoids??? Of course, but that dosn't mean they didnt come this way out of the factory. I will tell you this..... The original air struts on our GEN 2 Marks are THE BEST period. THe Arnott ones are complete junk and do NOT LAST! They like to go bad right after the warranty period is up! Its definitely worth the $750-$800 as they will undoubtedly last 10-13 years or more depending where you live and how much you use your car.

PReal

You were right, Axeman - they were included. Put them on today (no 'hiccups' or surprises) along with the rear shock tower flanges I got from Jay Richmond over a year ago and I'm back in the saddle again! I'm still getting some "clunking" sounds from the rear so I guess it's on to rear sway bar end links now.

I'm always so grateful to everyone for the time spent to share their knowledge and experience on this site - we really have a great group of people here! Once again, MANY thanks!

clunking probably shock mounts, scrap the factory, see other post on rear shocks.