shocks ?

[Jim Cowden]

Constantly browsing at different products.
I was wondering if anyone had fitted any of the Strange brand of coil over shocks ( double adjustable)

And what feed back they may be able to give.

Jim C

 

[Peter Delaney]

Jim, for what its worth, I fitted AVO units and could not be less impressed. I eventually traced most of my rear-end rattles to these culprits & found 2 major problems with the spherical bearings at each end :

- the original bearings are highly dubious in terms of quality. When removed & cleaned after only 4000kms, there was so much play between the ball & socket that you could have used them as castinettes !!

- the hoops (or bearing housings) are oversize. The old bearings could be pushed out by the lightest of finger pressure, and the new standard-size teflon-lined jobs (from National Bearings) literally fell into the housings - 3 layers of teflon tape made them a tight test fit, so I am going to have to somehow address this issue with some sort of shimming.

Summary : don't go near AVO !!!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

[Colin Dalzell]

Peter, can you provide details on the replacement shocks - I too have AVO and get quite the bottoming out over what I feel are pretty tame bumps.
Please let me know what fits and the speces for front and rear if able.
Thanks

 

[Peter Delaney]

Colin - bad news : no replacement shocks yet ! The shock of the cost of replacing all my dubious spherical joints around the rear end was enough of a shock !

I have my AVO's set at the lowest damping for road use - this seems mostly ok if I am alone in the car, but when one of my more "bulky" friends climbs in, bottoming out is the order of the day. Once I get my $%$#!!$#@!! gearbox back in, I am going capture one of these guys for a "before & after" test - damping full up / full down. There should be a noticable difference as the "victim" I have in mind adds more than 10% to the total weight of the car !!

Back to the dreaded AVO bearings : I am going to see if I can figure out a way to get the outer casings of the new bearings to make a good fit into the hoops - maybe a few thou's worth of shim material around the casing ?

What have you got your damping settings at now ?

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

[ChrisL]

[ QUOTE ]
I am going to see if I can figure out a way to get the outer casings of the new bearings to make a good fit into the hoops - maybe a few thou's worth of shim material around the casing ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Peter,
The job may not be as difficult as you think. The spherical bearings at the ends of these shockers are removable and can be replaced. If you have the type that I'm familiar with then it’s a simple matter of removing the circlip and pressing the bearing out. Anyway, in all likelihood the wear is probably between the bearing housing and the sphere so you won’t be able to shim it. Also, I understand that there are differing types of these spherical bearings so you may be able to choose between ordinary or Teflon coated etc etc.

 

[Peter Delaney]

Hi Chris, unfortunately I have already replaced these bearings with new teflon-lined ones (from National Bearings). These are aircraft quality units & are beyond reproach. The problem is AVO's engineering tolerances - not much chop ! The old bearings almost fell out of the hoops & the new ones almost fell in - the problem is the ID of the AVO hoop - too big.

So, my original rattles came from 2 sources :

- Oversize hoops for the outer bearing casing to sit in
- Lots of play between the ball & the casing

It was interesting to note another pathetic piece of engineering from AVO - the old bearings were designed to be lubricated as they had a groove around the outer face of the casing & 2 holes from this groove into the ball/socket area - BUT no grease nipple at all ! My suspicion is that the accountants rule at AVO - whatever is cheapest !

Best avoided.

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

[ChrisL]

Peter,
I did once see someone apply an “emergency” fix to just such a problem. They solved it by punching tiny dimples equally spaced around the contact surface (in your case, the inside of the hoop) using a pointed steel punch. This caused the surface around the dimples to rise and so create a tight fit again. Probably not recommended on an item that you dearly love, but for a crappy product that you are almost ready to throw out the window, it may be a quick and effective solution.

 

[Peter Delaney]

Hi Chris,

I did a similar dimple job on a gearbox bearing housing in an MGTD I owned over 30 years ago - it worked a treat & totally stopped the outer bearing casing from rotating. An old mate of my grandfather diagnosed the problem within half a mile & gave me the clues on how to fix it !

I had thought of the same approach for the &**&! AVO's, but was concerned that the full weight of the car might flatten the dimples over time. So I am going to try to get a layer of very thin s/s shim instead so as to spread the load. I'll let you know if I find anything thin enough & how it goes.

Thanks & Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

[Jim Cowden]

Peter
There is a company in Brookvale (turner enterprises) that will inject urathane between your housing & bearing.

I have used this on suspension components that are unavailable.

Your choice of shock is can be a difficult one I know the konis are a good product as are the Bilstien.
But there are others on the market, The factor being do you pay $700-800 per shock
or do you look at something else that could be just as good (but you get tentitive because we have been brain washed by the known brands).
Or do you take the risk on the $700 a pair external double adjustable all alloy bodyed looks the part shock.(As per strange enginering)
And then when it all turns to shit the poor man pays twice & your best freinds get to call you a f*****g donkey.
Most have a budget & we all do our homework but I have seen a few brands that look the part but you get no feed back,its a shame as they might be ok.

Jim C