Dismantle rear shocks on 1966 Scrambler

[Dickj]

I need to re-chrome rear shock springs. How do I take them apart? I forgot how

[G-Man]

Dick

Get or make a compressor for the spring. Once you have compressed the spring a little you can remove the split collets just underneath the top eye.

Mine is made out of studding and scrap aluminium. I just make up different end fittings depending upon the actual shock I am working on. You can do this with just a friend to compress the spring manually but my method involves less injury and nasty surprises :-)


G

[danielmoto]

nice one G-man, youve answered my question cheers danielmoto

[Ford Guy]

I took mine all the way apart and had the lowers rechromed as well. I used a similar tool and more or less reversed it to get the seal out once I had the inner gland nut (or so I call it) loosened all the way. If you use the puller to remove the rod out of the lower portion of the shock you should not destry the seal. If you take it all way apart as I did the real challange is to get the correct amount of oil back in. I did the trial and error method and it took some time but I got it right.

[G-Man]

Pretty sure that the oil quantity is mentioned in the workshop manual.

Some of the later shocks are crimped together so not easily dismantlable. I made some jigs and tool so that I could turn off the crimp in my lathe, then threaded the top of the body to take an aluminum sleeve nut like the very early shocks.

The 'puller' to get the damper rod out is a good idea if you want to avoid splashing the oil everywhere.

[Snakeoil]

G-man,

Based on your set-up, it looks like you are going to thread the OD of the shock. Is that correct? So you are making a cap of sorts to thread in place of the plug and hold the seal in?

I see you have your compound set at 90 deg. If you are interested, I'll PM you about setting it at a different angle when threading.

I pulled my apart by putting rods thru the top and bottom, standing on one and pulling on the other. And yes, oil went everywhere. I thought they would ease out. But that was not the case.

regards,
Rob

[G-Man]

Rob

Yes, I threaded the outside 26tpi and made an Aluminum sleeve nut which fits over the shock body. Shortly afterwards I found a set of CL72 (I think) shocks were were assembled in exactly the same way but with a 1mm pitch (25.4 tpi) thread. They look like original Honda manufacture but I may have been looking at the product of another piece of lateral thinking....

Thanks for the kind offer on the screwcutting technique. Sometimes I set an angle on the topslide but sometimes I just ease the topslide horizontally a little with each cut just to relieve the pressure on the tool.

Restoration has slowed to a crawl over the last 12 months so I haven't had much chance to put these shocks back together but I am hoping to get a bit more spare time this year.

By dismantling the shocks carefully I was able to collect the oil from the bodies so that I could measure a suitable quantity for re-assembly. Even using a puller very carefully, there was a loud 'pop!' when they came apart.

G