Alan,
Which book says to use 20/50 engine oil in shock absorbers, pray tell?
Enquiring minds want to know........
Lawrie
British Sportscar Center
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan <Alan@health.co.zw>
To: mgs@autox.team.net <mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Friday, July 21, 2000 4:09 AM
Subject: Originality update.
>Many thanks to all the listers that responded to my submission re
>originality. Much food for thought. The general consensus seemed
>to be that the original parts could, in the main, be made to work
>adequately and that going any other route would have an adverse
>effect on the value of the car.
>
>So I started to look at the parts on the car that I felt could use
>some improvement. First, off with the front shocks, Mine were
>covered in oily mud and looked awful, the left one worse than the
>right. After cleaning them off I discovered a cover plate at the back,
>under which is a rocking beam arrangement and two plungers. All
>looked in good shape except the oil, which was incredibly thick.
>The book says 20w50, so I cleaned out the old stuff by removing
>the damping valve and pumping the A-arm, and refilled with the
>right oil after cutting a new gasket for the cover plate, and refitting it
>with gasket cement. I had to pump the arm a lot to bleed out all
>the air, but after a while the damping effect was very smooth and
>even and with no apparent play when the A-arm reversed direction.
>So I put them back on the car. A dramatic improvement in damper
>performance, with much less road shock coming through the
>steering wheel. I'm going to do the same thing with the rear shocks
> this weekend.
>
>They probably arn't as good as a well-engineered tube damper set
>up, but I have doubts about my ability to create such a thing, and
>what I have now works well enough for me, so now on to the next
>thing, which is the brakes. I'll let you know how that comes out.
>
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