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76 B front shock absorbers

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aroostok

Jedi Hopeful
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Recently decided to replace the front suspension bushes. Proceeded to tear off the front suspension finding all kinds of problems as I went along (30 year old rusted nuts and bolts being the least of them!) Got it all apart, cleaned up, painted spring pans and a-arms. New nuts and bolts all around. Bottom end of trunnion replaced. Moss 1" lower springs for front and lowering kit for rear. All replacement bushes will be polyurethane (except for lower trunion. Will be adding anti-sway bar in front which wasn't on the 76 Bs. Everything has cleaned up nice and am ready to go (will be moving the spacer as the knowledge base article descrlibes). Basically pretty much all new. While I was checking over things while disassembling, I noticed significant difference in the front shock rates. No notice of leaking anywhere so I decided to drain the shocks and replace the fluid while I'm under there. Here's where the problem comes in. When draining the shocks I got very little fluid out of the shocks (more on the side that was stiffer), not anywhere what I expected. Can anybody tell me how much fluid should be in there? And is the best way to flush them to clean them (the fluid was very dirty, as well) to fill with fluid and operate without the shock valves in? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much.
 
Recently, I pulled a set off one of my GT's to clean...I removed the valve & turned them on edge over a bucket & let them drain, occassionally pumping the arms. Yep, gunky, blackish 'juice' ran out. And there wasn't much there. Then I started flushing clear mineral oil through them using a vet's hypodermic - the big plastic type they use on large animals. After a bit, all I was getting out was clear mineral oil.

Then, I filled the valve hole about halfway and reinstalled the valve. Finally, I topped them off through the fill hole. But I didn't measure how much mineral oil each one took - not very much though.

Oh, you'll almost never get them filled unless you prefill the valve body opening before reinstalling it. And be careful, the valve comes out in 2 pieces!
 
Ron,

Do yourself (and your passengers) a favor and trade your old shocks in for rebuilt ones from Worldwide. I did and I am so glad I did...the ride and handling difference was amazing. You can order a rebuilt pair online and ship your old ones back to them for a "core" credit.

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
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