[rotorwrench]

Folks seldom do any scheduled form of maintenance on these old iron fluid dampers, They would likely last longer if a person took the time to change fluid in them and clean them up. It's not as easy as a person might think so a spare set would likely give plenty of time to get maintenance done like this but most folks don't think about it.

These were throw away items back in the era they were used. Houdaille manufactured a lot of them for the various manufacturers that used them and the price was a way lot better back then. The advent of the "aircraft style shock" in 1947 pretty well ended the use of the who-die style shocks. Only a few European companies used them much after that.

Bell Helicopters used a form of them on their stabilizer bar systems but most folks have converted to "no-bar kits" in the modern era. The stabilizer bars had a tendency to depart the aircraft and folks got tired of the daily inspections they had to perform on them.