Fridee night oil thread, it's a shocker!

[Deleted User 287]

My _____ * were rebuildable before I got my paws on them. Now, they are repairable.

*enter any noun and it pretty much sums up my life.
The jury is still out on the repairable.

[Jean]

transmission.

Meow.

[SteveD]

A couple of net articles re: shock rebuild.

http://mechanicalhusbandry.com/2011/01/ ... k-rebuild/

http://airheadtechforum.yuku.com/topic/ ... iPTX38UiSo

[Chuey]

Holy crap. Chuey speaks Hipster.

Like totally.

That's Val.

Chuey

[Chuey]

Holy crap. Chuey speaks Hipster.

Duh. I sell fixies.

Chuey

[Roy Gavin]

Maxton, in England, will make custom shocks to your specifications for round about the same cost as a pair of Konis'.

Only problem is that you have to supply them with all the information, length, travel , loading etc, and the loading in particular can be difficult to get .

I was quoted $120- each to service my Konis by my local guy, and he does Ohlins Monoshocks for $90-.

Might as well pay Maxton $500- for a pair of decent, rebuildable custom shocks,and sell the Konis on Ebay

[ME 109]

Too late Roy, I've just come home with a new pair of Ikons.
And the new parts to repair the other ones.

So, what happened to my shocks is this. They have been weeping for a couple of years, so there was less than the ideal amount of oil in them. After taking the shocks off to repair them I noticed the symptom of having no oil in one of them. There was no rebound damping whatsoever.
Both shocks still had a fair bit of oil in them tho'
Turns out the broken rivet holding the washers in place was the reason for no damping......The factory didn't know the rivet was broken after doing a dyno test. They also must have thought there was no oil in the faulty one.

I got a new rivet too. I didn't want to get just any rivet. Had to be the correct one.

I'm gonna go and mount my shocks. Hope I don't get caught up in the springs.

[Airbear]

I'm gonna go and mount my shocks. Hope I don't get caught up in the springs.

Yikes, be careful!

So what did the new ones cost, Jeff?

[ME 109]

I'm gonna go and mount my shocks. Hope I don't get caught up in the springs.

Yikes, be careful!

So what did the new ones cost, Jeff?

$418.00 Charlie.

Two new retaining nuts were 30 bucks. That will allow me to fix the old ones and sell 'em.
I'm just working on the add speel at the moment. Not sure if it can be put into words tho........

[Ken in Oklahoma]

. . . My friend, who (apparently) is quite a bit older than I, reflected on how they used to rebuild shocks in the "old days".
They would drill a hole in the side, squirt out the old oil, shoot some new oil in, and then seal it up with a cork seal and a self-tapping screw. . .

I've done that, if I remember correctly on the Koni's on my '72 CZ MX. Only I didn't use a self tapping screw. I brazed a nut on top of the hole and used a screw and gasket to seal it. Of course I didn't have a clue how much oil to put in the shocks, so I immersed them (without springs) in some oil and pumped the air out. Then I made sure the shock was collapsed before I put in the screw.

I seem to remember the results were OK, but I really didn't have much to compare to. But even with new Koni's CZ MX'ers had a reputation for the rear wheel not complying with the ground very well.

I tried the same thing on some old BMW shocks but it didn't seem to work out well. Plus, by that time, I wasn't operating in a "poverty rider" mode, so I quickly abandoned that project.

As might be inferred, this was a decidedly crude attempt at making shocks "do right". Even I knew that worn shocks might not operate well with a strange non factory oil and unknown wear on the piston seals.

But it had to be tried.

I do have a new set of Koni seals I bought a few years ago when the kits became available. I think it was Ikon that did the kit. I wasn't impressed. Not a scrap of writing on how to.

Ken