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AVO shocks?

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mrsprite

mrsprite

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OK.....a little more than 3 years ago I bought the Frontline front & rear tube shock kits. The shocks they use are AVO and I immediately installed the front kit back when I got them, but didn't install the rears and kept them in a box in the basement. Until today. I decided to put them on and the passenger side went on without a hitch, but when I went to install the drivers side oil began pouring out! What gives? I have not contacted Fronline......mainly because it has been 3 1/2 years since I bought them and even though they are brand new I don't expect them to do anything (besides.....shipping to & from the UK would be just as pricey as just buying a new one).

My questions are.....has anyone here used AVO's and where could I send the off to be rebuilt? I have read horror stories about people sending them for a rebuild only to run into problems (lack of customer sevice, etc.).

Anyone? I really don't want to have to order a new one from the UK. Ugh.
 
I just sent a medium size box to the UK at work.
$200 one way. WOW!!!
 
Do you have specs to allow you to find a replacement set in the US? It might be better if they matched.
 
Might be easier and cheaper to get the specs on the AVO and purchase a pair of Koni's that are readily available in the U.S. But the first thing I would do is contact Frontline before you give up on the warranty. In my dealings with them they seem to be a very up front company and may help you out.
 
PeterC said:
Tube shocks leak!!????

Oh, the heresy!


Imagine that, Peter!! Perhaps a nice set of levers would work well!????

Kurt
Click to expand...
 
Are Koni brand shocks still available? I thought they were bought out and replaced by the Ikon brand.

I have Spax on my car and they are crap. Lousy damping rates and they weep oil around the shaft seal.
 
PeterC said:
2 leaking tube shox?


Is the world ending?
Click to expand...

Just felt my levers wiggle a bit in a turn. Gonna be sendin' 'em to you soon my friend.
 
Koni is still in business and is doing very well. They even have a manufacturing facility in Kentucky, their phone number 859.856.4100. I chose to go with Pro Shocks in Atlanta. Great service and a very high quality alloy shocks for my coil-over set up in the rear on my Bugeye. However If you contact Koni you need info if your trying to match something up. You’ll need compression height, extension height, eyelet configuration and size diameter of eyelet hole, weight front and rear of car.

One other comment, If your koni's are still in good shape except tired, send them to Koni they can rebuild them. I did this a few years ago for a 250 Ferrari, when they came back they look brand new.
 
I have Konis installed on my Sprite. They were installed back in the mid-sixties before the days of Peter C. I am pleased with them. Koni no longer has the part number listed. My part number is 80-1465 so they might have the specs still available. They are adjustable but one end must be detached from the car to do it.
 
It doesn't appear to be leaking anymore.....only a small amount of oil came out (in the grand scheme of things). We're about to get a huge snow storm, so i won't be able to drive it around until next weeke some time. It also may have been my fault. The shock got cocked a bit while I was trying to line it up on the mounting bolt and that may have upset the seal (that's when it started leaking). I'll monitor things and see how it goes and will look into some KONI's if I do have to replace them.....shipping from the UK is just too cost prohibitive.

As for leaking shocks......they all leak eventually, even certain rebuilt levers. The 5 year old Monroe Sensa-Traks I took off weren't leaking and I've put 40-50K miles on them. I think it was a freak thing that caused the AVO's to leak.....not any sort of design flaw.

There is nothing inherently wrong with levers and there is nothing inherently wrong with tubes......they are simply two different means to an end. I prefer tube shocks.....some people prefer levers. So be it.
 
kalist said:
Might be easier and cheaper to get the specs on the AVO and purchase a pair of Koni's that are readily available in the U.S. But the first thing I would do is contact Frontline before you give up on the warranty. In my dealings with them they seem to be a very up front company and may help you out.
Click to expand...

Even better yet, try Pro Shocks in Atlanta, they have really good prices, and I used their shock on the race cars, and never had a issue, and can't say the same for $1200 a corner Pneske race shocks. I always went for the the basic steel body pre-valved tube shock, even if it was a coil over set up, They will to need know stroke lenght, extended eye to eye measurement, and the weight of the car and intended use of the car, race, street, whatever . I think you'll find them very helpful, I always did. Chances are you can get two better quailty Pro shocks for less than it cost to ship back to the UK, and they will custom made with your car in mind.
 
A friend completely ruined the handleing of his B by fitting tube shocks all around. I've never had any problems with the levers and they can be set up to give you anything you want for damping. The only thing that would induce me to fit tubes to a british car would be if I could get coilovers to be able to adjust springing some.

Kurt.
 
So is it better to stay with the levers of convert to coil and tube shocks?
 
That is more a question of quasi-religious doctrine than one of technical merit. It all depends upon which Spridget sect you ascribe to: original intent or modern interpretation.

Answer this question first, is the original designers intent immutable and unchanging or is there a place for change and/or improvement?
 
Westfield_XI said:
That is more a question of quasi-religious doctrine than one of technical merit. It all depends upon which Spridget sect you ascribe to: original intent or modern interpretation.

Answer this question first, is the original designers intent immutable and unchanging or is there a place for change and/or improvement?
Click to expand...


Nail. Hammer. Head.
 
There's alot of knuckhead tube shock conversions out there, mostly for rear, that consider very little to geomnetry and screw things up, then some front tube shocks kit that bolt to sheetmetal that eventually rips out, not really welel thought. The Frontline kit, I think it's well thought out, but does it truely accomplish much in the way of improvment, not really, it relies on the premise that one assumes a tube shock to be better than a lever shock, and really they are not. Lever shock didn't cease to be on production cars because they were inferior, they disappeared off production cars because tube shock are cheaper to make, many old American cars used lever shocks as well, the British just stuck with it longer than everyone else. Current F1 race car, if you think about, sorta use lever shock, so the design is not flawed, just more expensive to produce. I suggested Pro shock, because the original poster has already invested in a the Frontline kit, so he need relaible tube shocks.

We designed and made our own front coil over system for Spridget race cars, we used computer simulataon to help us make the design, the whole idea was not to wow folks with the bling of it all, it was t make the front suspension better, in ways of adjusatabilty, and make the scrub angles and CG better. I think alot of the street offerings like Frontline, just went the bling route. Curious, did Frontline put provision in their system for easy camber and and caster adjustments, because if they did, I take back everything I said about them. Frontline's website is horrible, they hardly tell you anything about their proudcts, it makes a mere mention that the kit induces 1 degree of negative camber, but does tell you much else, like if there is any adjsustabilty, and I find hard to believe someone would prodcue such a kit and not design adjustabilty into it. To honest with you, All Frontline's stuff looks like something I could make in my shop in a couple of hours, and make it alot better than them, Forntline products are far from being trick, or innovative, but then again, thats always been what Costello is all about, bling, and not too much else, it's like the man has jello in his head. :smile:
 
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