Hey all, Picked up a bunch of shocks (matching pairs at swap meet some time back) and now that I am fitting the shocks, I found something interesting. When you go to compress the shock they slide down rather easy, but when you go to pull them back up they have the standard resistance of a shock? Am I dealing with a shot pair of shocks or are they designed that way for a certain coil or spring for back pressure/tension? Pork
Depending on the inteneded original application they could be perfect...On your intended application they could be junk..Try to look up the shocks to see what they were built for and then can make an educated guess as to whether good or bad for your use..
Also, look close at the base and at the shell (upper sometimes) and see if it looks like there's 3 adjustments. Some older shocks could be compressed, turn and feel and internal click, extend back to usable length. Also some old drag shocks were easy extend, stiff compress, or what the industry called "90-10" front shocks.
MANY older design stock shocks were built that way. The theory back then was the Spring controls compression and the Shock controls the rebound. Much has been learned since then
Yep, pretty typical of non-gas-charged hydraulic shocks. You will find different damping rates depending on application and/or if they're 'heavy duty'. I've got two big boxes full of NORS shocks for fifties cars, but don't have a catalog to tell what they fit...
Exactly. Compression damping and rebound is controlled by the "valve code" inside the shock, i.e. the port and valve shim configuration. It is quite possible that those shocks were setup for very little compression damping and alot of rebound control.
Back when I was often installing several sets of shocks a day I found that they seemed to work better if you worked them by hand several times before installing them. The ones we had often sat on the shelf for a long time before being sold and needed to be cycled several times before they worked right. I'm with the guys in that a lot of oem type shocks used to have quite a bit more resistance in one direction than the other and were good shocks at the time.
Awesome, guys! Now, what are the effects of "rebound" shocks on a single leaf front-end or a coil spring rear? Since I have them, and my rear coils are not too stiff (although new from SpeedWayChina), I am going to try the reverse shocks on the rear. It is a 13 inch span eye to eye; so , worse case, the ride ****s, I 'em off, match them, and go with the other direction. I guess, thinking about it, it still functions in a similar way. Meaning: an unwanted rebound is dampened?
could be talking about the old drag-racer's friend, the "90-10" shock. they were used on the front for weight transfer. front end would go up and stay there due to difference in pressure.
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