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Armstrong Dampers

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Jayrz

Jayrz

Jedi Trainee
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With basically no damping action at all at any corner of the car I took off the front shocks this morning to see what was in them. Removal was pretty straightforward and I had to re-install the RF lower control arm anyway because the PO had replaced the bushings and re-assembled it all incorrectly so that the locating tab did not set into its slot and therefore the arm moved around scaring the bejeesus out of me driving the car around the neighborhood with its newly installed Datsun 5-speed last week. So,,,,where was I? , ah yes, so I got the armstrongs off the car and the drivers side shock had basically nothing in it. Passenger side shock seem to have some damping action once removed but sure didn't seem that way on the car.

The valving parts all seem to look OK I guess and it is certainly simple for me to just re-fill them with oil, (was planning on using 20wt motorcycle fork oil), but how do I tell whether or not the bores and pistons are shot before hand?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance guys

Jay
 
PeterC is the resident shock expert but I will take a crack until he comes along to answer your question correctly /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif The motorcycle fork oil should be fine. Flush out all the old oil you can by filling, pumping and dumping. Then remove the front cover, clean out any easy to get to junk, then fill the chamber. Put the shock in a vise and check the action. If it is working properly, it should take a fair amount of muscle to move the lever in either direction. If you can move the lever without grunting, either your shocks are burnt or you are a lot tougher than me. The amount of umph should be about the same in either direction. If you have them out and you have $150 to spare, it would probably be a good idea to have PeterC send you some rebuilt ones... And you will never have to mess with your shocks again.
 
If there is any question, I would get rebuilt ones from Peter. I have installed the fronts from him and have the rears on the way.

The way he rebuilds them is better than the original.

Now if I can just get the rest of the car back in working order.
 
Jay, I've missed your posts, but the 5 speed conv is a great step forward, keep us posted on your progress.
 
Thanks KC,

The car is coming along well and should have her new red interior in by next week. I installed the 5speed behind the motor that came in the car and although its a pretty decent running 1098 it is pretty anemic at Denvers altitude. So I baught a parts car just for the 1275 with plans to build it to about 100hp or so,,, actually I think I'd be happy with 90.

Looks like 100hp is going to be expensive-ish,,, so I see you have the supercharger. Paul at Sports Car Craftsman is very ardent beleiver in these and I am interested so,,,
how do you like your supercharger set-up?
 
FWIW, I plan on buying a pair of front shocks from Peter. I have heard nothing but good thigs about his and his shocks, so I need no more convincing.

I removed mine some time ago and flushed them all out and refilled with fork oil. They worked great for about a week, then it was back to no damping action. Not worth my effort to keep flushing and filling! I'll be ordering mine this coming week.

I can't wait to see your Midget tomorrow!
 
Miss Agatha rides on Peters shocks. Good value, good service.
 
Well I got the shocks back in the car today and, seems to be working pretty well. I had taken the valving out and rinsed them out over and over again with 5wt BelRay fork oil and then rinsed once more with 20wt and then filled them completely adding oil as I got more bubbles until would not take anymore and no more bubbles appeared.
So the damping action was a little dis-appointing on the bench because I expected to need to frunt to get them to move but on the car they seem to work pretty dang well for now. If the action deteriorates rapidly, as I suspect it might I'll be callin Peter with a credit card, you know that glowing hot piece of plastic that keeps jumping out of my wallet!

After the shocks were back in I took to scrubbing out 44 years worth of grime grease and crud from the stripped interior, power washed it and will set all night with a box fan blowing through it to get it completely dry.

Any of you have a reccomendation for a sealer type paint i can put down before my new interior stuff arrives? I was thinking something pretty heavy duty that is a roll on but I don't have any experience with these or know any product names.

Jay
 
My shocks look like new since they were purchased in 1989 when the car was restored. However, they will leak out shock oil in a day's time. I've gotten quite proficient in adding jack oil to them in about 5 minutes' time.

I'll be buying some from Peter when I have the money, because it becomes a safety issue when driving the car undamped. It's like piloting a little boat through heavy wake. When they have oil in them, the car is a sports car though.
 
Jayrz said:
Any of you have a reccomendation for a sealer type paint i can put down before my new interior stuff arrives? I was thinking something pretty heavy duty that is a roll on but I don't have any experience with these or know any product names.
Click to expand...

Floors, footwells etc.? I recently did mine with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator, which I quite like. I think the link in my signature should lead you to the pictures. I topcoated with colour-matched paint, but that is (functionally) not necessary. It's nice stuff, can be rolled or brushed on, self-levels quite nicely, and is less finicky than POR15, although it doesn't dry quite as hard. YMMV.
 
Rustolum is a great product, available at the local hardware.
 
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