VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 lever action type shocks

I have the lever action type shocks in my '31. Is there fluid in these type shocks? :o :o

Yes!

Jerry,
I can't speak for your shocks. They were once filled with a light mineral oil, hydraulic fluid or equivalent. If the oil has not leaked out it will still be there.

Thanks Guys, I got them off and will clean and check them tomorrow.

When I took apart the shocks I have on my '32, I used 300W transmission fluid to replace whatever was in there. I was told by a another antique buff that it was the equivalent replacement. It rides fine, although I don't firmly know if that was correct.

Hydralic jack oil is the recommended replacement for shock fluid.Not too pricy either.ATF also works well.

OK, I cleaned up my shocks tonite and when I tested them, 3 went half way before resistance and the other only about 10% before hitting resistance making me think they are low on fluid. I'll use hydraulic fluid but where do you fill them up at and how full? :confused: There's a screwdriver type looking plug on top but to me it doesn't look treaded. Thought I'd ask before runing something. :rolleyes: Also do you take off the back plate of the rear end to drain the oil? Heck, might as well ask.

The "screwdriver" type of plug at the top shock absorber unscrews and you fill the shock with fluid to the shoulder of the hole. Under the plug is also a relief valve, so make sure that you don't lose it.

Hey thanks JYD, Now how about draining the rear end? :confused:

Try removing one of the lowest bolts that holds the differential cover on and that should work as a drain hole, I think.

Hi jerrygolf...Shocks here.
Well for ever its worth I make my first comment too.
When I got my 31 a few months back and my shocks were dry also. I used a light hydraulic oil which I put in the big sloted ***** head on the top of the shock itself. I filled it to the rim and bounced the car some and kept filling to the top. This bouncing helped displace the air in the shock.
It did help me and I see no signs of leaks. If you see a leak afterwards THE FILLINGSTATION sales the repair kits I think. If they hold oil they will help your ride.

Good luck......Shocks

Went to the shed tonight to unscrew the plugs on the shocks but no go. I had them soaked in fuel oil and also sprayed them with WD40 plus I tapped the plug lightly with a hammer. Put vice grips on one of them and no move. Put plug in a vice and put my whole 127 lbs. behind it and still no go. Before I get carried away by pounding it with a wooden block while in the vice I was wondering if it would be harmful to heat them? Would that hurt the relief valve and spring or any thing else? On the plus side I got the brake drums cleaned up. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Heat the plugs gently with an acetylene torch and the plugs will come right out. I have heated many that way and they have always unscrewed after the heat treatment. Don't get the plug red hot.....just warm. You might have to heat the plug several times, but this method does work.

It is safer to heat with a propane torch and quench with cold water. Sometimes you need to do the heat quench cycle several times before it will come loose. Just remember the old saw "If it doesn't come loose, use a larger hammer (screwdriver or ?????), if it breaks nothing lost it needed fixing anyway!" If you can't find a replacement or fix the one you have it might get a little more serious.

Yeah, I agree with what JYD says about taking out the plugs, When you first try to remove them try tapping on the screwdriver with it straight in the slot then if it don't wink heat them till they smoke. also to drain the rearend take out two or three of the cap screws out of the bottom and you may have to use a welding rod or piece of coat hanger wire to clean the crud out before any grease will come out. When you get the old grease out, let it drip overnight, some folks flush the houseing with solvent, diesel or even MMO or WD40 but I fill with 85-140 multipurpose gear grease, that way you don't to have to worry about having diluted grease, and after the next trip drain it and refill with new grease, after a couple of trips repeat the operation till the drained grease looks almost like it looked when it went in.

Hey, Thanks guys. Will let you know how it works out. Was almost thinking of firing up the nipco heater to take the chill out of the shed while I worked in there Monday , but after a -34 yesterday it's starting to warm up so it won't be too bad. Hee Hee :p Guess I'll have to start it any way to warm up the rear end grease. :rolleyes:

I took mine apart last year. The plugs all came out, but I did have to vise grip one or two of them... didn't have to use the hot wrench (well, I don't have a very hot one anyway...).

The Filling Station catalog I have (March 2003) has the rebuild kits on page 162, part No AF-210-2, $39.50 per kit for two shocks. The kits have new plugs so you can drill yours out if you HAVE to. They also have the plugs separately, AF-97 @ $4.50 each.

I experimented around with different fluids, working the shock up and down by hand with it mounted on the frame (not very scientific). I started out with 10 or 15 weight motorcycle fork oil, which seemed WAY stiff. The hydraulic jack oil was still pretty stiff. It would be nice to have some specs on the damping rate... like how many seconds it should take a given amount of torque to displace the shock a given angle.

I was worried about the seal behind the arm leaking. Someone suggested that I put a low viscosity fluid in to see if it would leak. I tried diesel fuel, and... no leak! I'll bet that after the shock is heated up a little that might change. From playing with them, I'll bet they get good and hot.

I still feel compelled to try to replace the seal. It looks like the arm and shaft was pressed into the cam (that pushes the piston) at the factory. The casting has a bind boss for the shaft on the inboard side, so you can't get to the back side to press the dang thing apart. I've toyed with the idea of taking one of mine (I have 8) to a mill and machining the back of the boss out so I could press the shaft out and see what the seal and shaft looks like. My thought was to select an end mill that matched the oil galley size of a small block chevy so I could use the galley plugs to stop the casting back up when I was done. Someone discouraged me from experimenting on a good shock (I think it was Mr Mack, with "if it's not broke"... but I do have one that isn't so good...) Anyway, the biggest thing stopping me from experimenting with this is that I don't have ready access to a mill.

Wow! For the last few weeks it had been hovering around 17 or so here in Salt Lake City, but in the last few day's it's warmed into the low 40's. I take cold pretty well (like the whales do), but -34 is cold enough to freeze your hubcaps off!

Hey Grumpy, If you find anything out, let us know. Mine won't be going on for a couple of months yet.

Hey ChevyChip, Maybe I can just heat it and then put it outside for a couple of seconds. At -34, that's better than cold water.

Yes, a regular propane torch will work, but you can't centralize the flame like you can with an acetylene torch. The propane torch has a larger flame and it will heat up more of the area than what you need. With the acetylene torch you can just heat the plug instead of the surrounding area as with a propane torch, and the acetylene flame is adjustable as well so that it won't be as hot.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Took my shocks apart a few years back, before I knew any better. First hint, is that they don't come apart very easily.

But to make a long story short, I put them back together (read: Pressed) and used a spring-loaded rubber seal instead of the original cork/felt combination... I don't remember exactly what the original was, but it was easy to see that once it begins to leak, it always will.

I'm not a big fan of replacing pressurized shock seals with the original type material... surely SOMETHING must have been improved over the past 70 years!

I also have a few extra shocks laying around and expect to rebuild another pair sometime in the next few months, so I'm eager to see what you find out Jerry. Oh, one other hint... look for an article that was published a long time ago in the G&D about rebuilding shocks. I don't remember who wrote it, but I'm sure that he's dead by now.

Yep, I believe that he croaked! And, when you purchase the shock rebuilding kits from the Filling Station, the step by step article on how to rebuild them by the dead dude is included in the kit! (The original article appeared in the December, 1992 issue of the G&D) :eek: :eek: :eek:

By the way, when I rebuilt the test shock for the article before I croaked, I used the synthetic cork seal that came in the shock kit. It worked like a dream and in 15 years the shock hasn't leaked around the shaft yet!

Has anyone figured out how MrMack's posting fits into this discussion. Good answer, but wrong question.

Yep, In my third post I asked a quick question about the rear end as long as I was typing. Should of started a new post on that one but hopfully if some one has a question on it he could use the "search" and type in "rear end". Thanks MrMack! OK, off to church.