shock clearances

[Kurt in NJ]

I bought this shock at Hershey, it was real gooey, in a “junk” box at a early Ford mechanical parts rebuilders booth, for 2$ I took a chance.
when I got it home and put it in the vice it broke free, moved easily with no shaft play and had some resistance at each end of travel that changes with valve adjustment but it wouldn’t pick up oil and bleed out.
With the recent posting about shocks i got curious what it looks like inside.
Came apart easily.
Some of the machining seem a little rough, almost no wear, just polishing of the high spots off of the machining, the shaft fit is tight enough that the wingshaft tips are not touching housing, the running clearances are less than .0015, one layer of aluminum foil underneath the cover making movement firm so i figured that clearance is in the .0015 range too.
This shock will have a proper 60/40 action, and easily pass the weighted movement test as shown in the service bulletins using hydraulic oil, even using automatic transmission fluid, closing the needle valve will almost lock it up in the rebound direction, the internal check valves will allow movement in the compression direction
There were some chunks of a white material floating and stuck in the check valves and the air vent pins are clogged,

[alexiskai]

Originally Posted by Kurt in NJ

There were some chunks of a white material floating and stuck in the check valves

Maybe it's Teflon tape.

[Brentwood Bob]

One in a million. Actually unusual internals. Spicer?

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by alexiskai

Maybe it's Teflon tape.

......................

Originally Posted by Kurt in NJ

...and easily pass the weighted movement test as shown in the service bulletins ...

Kurt, did we ever determine a value for that weight of the KR Wilson tester? I think we said we could probably scale the length using the bumper as a datum for measuring, but I don't recall if we figured out what the weight was.

[Flathead]

Some of the best stuff you ever find is in junk boxes. Good looking shock.

[Thix]

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I would like to find four of them, probably will convert to newer style shocks being as my car doesn't have the shocks or the linkages on it. Good find though.

[Kurt in NJ]

I put the shock together dry (except for the cover), the shaft moves almost .002 side to side, .001 in-out. turns easily,no hint of binding.
My brother and I had a long discussion.
The test tool is 26-1/2”center of shaft to center of weight.
The weight is 3 lbs 5.8 oz
I have wondered since first rebuilding shocks about how the 20 degree travel would work with the tool beyond the bumper, and extending beyond the rear fender, scaled by the drawing the tool would be about 34”, and scaling by the size of the shock and wheel hub the weight would be about 5 lbs.
My conclusion is that it is a artists rendition, a existing car drawing with the tool superimposed but not exactly to scale.
The 26-1/2 would fit inside the rear fender, and behind the bumper, the tool wouldn’t be practical if the fender or bumper had to be removed to use it for a test
After reading a article about motorcycle fork oils, they tested many varieties and included tractor hydraulic oil and automatic transmission fluid which rated higher than many of the dedicated fork oils, although there are many choices of viscosity with fork oil.
I have been topping off the shocks on my car with atf ( its my universal oil can oil),I have found out it’s a little thin for my shocks, I built them with hydraulic jack/shock oil, had to close the needle valves some after oiling the springs.
This shock will get Kubota tractor hydraulic oil, it is multi viscosity , then I will see how it reacts to testing, from a wear standpoint this shock should perform the same as a new original shock in both compression and rebound.

[rotorwrench]

As long as a person has the arm distance, the weight amount at the arm location, and the time though the arc then just about any combination of home made tooling would work on a bench mount. The Ford approved tooling was made to test in situ or on a bench mount.

To time main rotor dampers on the French Llama helicopters we used a spring scale to apply pressure to the actuator arm and used a stop watch to time them. Bell helicopters with stabilizer bars are about the same. Bell's dampers were made by Houdaille but were much more modern in design. The needle is adjusted with a screw driver.

[Oldbluoval]

I would think atf way too thin but never tried it. Always just used hydraulic Jack oil but it has different viscosity too.
Also re-read your writing and may not have digested all of it correctly.
I always filled the internal wing chamber before putting the internal cover on. I found it took way too long to transfer from the outer reservoir to the inside working area. This may be exactly what you’re doing.

[Kurt in NJ]

I put it together dry because i wanted to use dial indicator to measure movement without any oil cushion.
when it was apart i cleaned the air vent grooves, it will fill easily with oil can in the fill port
all the shocks on my car are tight enough that closing the needle valve almost totally locked them up even with atf

[rotorwrench]

Hydraulic oil is available in a lot of different viscosities. It always depends on internal clearances as to what viscosity may be used. They used glycerin for many years and it isn't all that viscous. The dampers were new back then so they didn't need much viscosity.