Leaky clone shocks? I have the answer...

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Trip

Trip

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About 2 weeks ago I decided to change the oil in my shocks and I noticed on disassembly that one of the rears was leaking pretty badly. So I grabbed a rebuild kit and put the shocks back together. The same one was leaking again. I know it was resembled properly, it's only 2 o-rings and a washer held in by a little clip...

After disassembling it again and throughly inspecting it, nothing seemed wrong. The o-rings were smooth with no tears and the shock shafts are like new. I used AE Green Slime on reassembly.

So refusing to put it back together to have it leak again, I cut pieces of silicone fuel tubing, 2mm long and slid them into place with the o-rings... This is the same fuel tubing used for nitro trucks.

I used two, 2mm pieces per shaft with the new o-rings. I inserted the o-rings first, then I crammed the silicone fuel tubing in after the o-rings and smashed the washer in place, I reinstalled the clip and filled the shock. It was rather tight in there, but w/o oil the shock shaft slid nice and easy. It felt great so I filled the shock with 40wt.

*Note* Remember to fill the shock body to the line on the inside of the shock body with oil and cycle the shaft up and down to see if there are any bubbles trapped in the oil. After the bubbles have escaped, push the piston right to the line in the shock body, then install the shock cap. If you install the cap with the piston at the bottom, the shock won't compress and it will be solid as a rock. Not Good!

Anyway,
I waited for about an hour after filling before I reinstalled the shock on the car just to be sure they weren't going to leak again. Everything was fine and the shock still had a nice slight rebound, so I did the same thing to the other three shocks and I am happy to report they are still dry and so are my covers!

It has been 2 weeks and my shocks are still dry and working properly.

So if you are tired of your crappy silver threaded body shocks dumping all their shock oil out the bottom of the shock body and making a mess, this tip may be for you.

Good Luck,
Trip..
 

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I know I'm going to try it. I have the wrong O-rings in mine, so they leak. Maybe this will solve the problem even with the wrong O-rings.
 
one problem with those shocks is they have lateral movement in the shafts and the c clip that holds the bottom scores the shock shafts which causes a lot of leaks... I've had 2 setsand tried a lot of crap but they eventually leak...
 
I gave one set away. I got my second vehicle that had them and just took them off right away. I even custom fit some ofna I believe, shock pistons in one set to keep them from wobbling as much, and rebuilt the bottoms with stuff from the parts box of mixed crap. I drilled out the shock pistons huge and ran dif oil in them. that was the only thing worked for me. sam still runs them but I have no idea if there is oil still in them
 
I recently bought some shocks for the 5t I am building (looking at the price they were a good deal) untill i took them apart to check out the guts before filling them I found a foam jouncer instead of the brass spacer and an ajustable valve definaltly not the SS shocks. I looked at the header tag and it indicated the shocks were for the SS but the insides of the shock told a different tale.I rebuilt what i had from parts i already had and chucked most of the original parts straight into the garbage. I believe the shocks were tagged wrong and were infact the hyper ajust shocks that come on the 23 rtr version(earlier versions) so far no leaks after 8 tanks of gas and the shocks work awsome now that they are redone with all the vcc SS parts. :) seal kit is cheap fuel line trick sounds good, I will try it if they ever start leaking =) Clone shocks SUCK!! replace all the guts with heavy duty Vcc SS parts and they will work awsome!
 
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The DS o-rings an Threshold seals both work great for keeping oil in the shock bodies. Two price ranges depending on your needs as well.


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