Oil filled shock absorber?

[RUNAMUCK]

So I have what I believe to be some old school oil filled, dismantle-able oil filled front struts. Bloke I got them from said they were coozed. I did some you tube-ing on the matter, and some pommy geezer reckoned they give up doing their thing when the oil fucks out/breaks down.

So these struts don't look oily, which would lead me to believe that they haven't leaked. So would fixing them be as simple as pouring out the old oil, and chucking some new stuff in? I'm looking for a minimum dollar outlay dealio. Pretty fucking noob question really. I've spent my time learning about making things go faster, rather than stuff like this.

 

Discuss!

[tortron]

I do this with my lever arm shocks.

Probably a different seal on those

[felixx]

my lever arm shocks leack the oil out

I use motorcycle fork oil

[tortron]

Felix i find fork oil leaks out too fast. Sawpped to straight 30 or 40 wt and is much better

[vivaspeed]

When I was playing around with Toyotas this was always the thing to do, dismantle struts, put in new oil and a seal for the shaft, put in a spacer to shorten the stroke, and away you go.  Could run different weights of oil in etc.  Cannot remember the details as it was 10+ years ago.

 

Also used to take them to a suspension place just off Moorhouse Ave (maybe on Montreal St?) and there was a guy there that would do it all for $50-60 if I was being lazy.

[Frosty]

I to have done this.

Had a TT130, used the internals from a GX70 strut in the TT130 housings, tried a few different oils before I got it right.

Did a bit of hunting around on the interweb thingy before hand and found you can use almost any none frothing mono grade oil.

From memory I ended up using Automatic Trans Fluid but you can use most of the oils used in hydraulic systems (The heaver the oil the stiffer the shock will be).

Pulling them down can also allow you to change the valve plates (make a new set with smaller holes) to stiffen them up even more.

[RUNAMUCK]

When I was playing around with Toyotas this was always the thing to do, dismantle struts, put in new oil and a seal for the shaft, put in a spacer to shorten the stroke, and away you go.  Could run different weights of oil in etc.  Cannot remember the details as it was 10+ years ago.

 

Also used to take them to a suspension place just off Moorhouse Ave (maybe on Montreal St?) and there was a guy there that would do it all for $50-60 if I was being lazy.

 

That was probably Glasgows?

Seems pretty easy to just change oil, and pay fuck all money.

I have access to a lathe, so I'll shorten the strut rod, rather than fit a droop travel limiting spacer. The springs are going to be makita 1ways. So I don't want it bottoming out internally.

[japawagons]

Redline does a range of Shock Absorber in single weights.

I use the heaviest stuff most of the time in all the lever action shocks I've played with.

[brocky41]

Mate - we just used 46 weight hydraulic oil in all those 310 sunnys we lowered lol - and makita one ways, instead of mucking around on the lathe cutting a thread etc, just use the limiting spacer i found that the easiest.

 

if they havent been leaking i just measured the amount of oil that was in it - you might have to borrow mums Pyrex jug like i did - and put the same amount back in.