Shock horror

[iMacThere4iAm]

Felicia felt really weird on the way home from work today, strange wobbly reverberations coming from the back right over bumps. Something seems to have gone very wrong with this shock absorber, the rubber bush has popped right out of its eye!
I think the shocks were overdue for replacement (last changed 10000km ago, and before the 4L Trophy) so will order some tonight and hopefully get them changed on the weekend.

 

[mojobaby]

I've never heard of that happening before. Must have been a rough ride in the desert

 

[iMacThere4iAm]

With those washboard roads, I'm surprised anything lasted this long!

 

[malcolm]

Originally didn't they use a very wide washer which would prevent the shock from falling off when the bush failed.

 

[iMacThere4iAm]

I was surprised it only had that tiny washer on, but I suppose a big washer would only postpone the inevitable.

 

[malcolm]

I'm thinking a really big washer wider than the metal surround of the damper eye to prevent it from falling off in the event of rubber bush failure. The knock would alert you to the failure but the damper would remain operational. I am fairly sure that is what would have been there originally.

 

[Bobble]

Yes there should be a bigger washer that covers the whole end, you can see this on the pictures of mick1 car he has for sale :-)

 

[Rober]

hie guys i live in zimbabwe and am new to this group
i have the r4 elf like Bobble" s one one of my rear shocks also did the same thing i guess its a weekness on these cars hey

 

[Rober]

will post pic soon enough

 

[iMacThere4iAm]

I have replaced the failed bushes with fancy polyurethane ones from SuperFlex. I used methyl ethyl ketone to extract and reuse the steel crush tube that was bonded into the old rubber bush, and reassembled with big washers as per the original design.

Unfortunately the shock absorber wasn't the big problem, just look what was hiding behind it!


After wire brushing to reveal the extent of the damage and starting to cut out a patch.


Of course it's that double skinned section which is tasty for the tinworm.

I cut out a patch, needs tidying up and a new patch making. Luckily the other side of the rail looks OK, no sign of bulging between the skins.


It looks like I'll need to take off some more bad metal on this side, which means cutting into a section that was already repaired quite recently I think it's strong enough because the repair patch was twice as thick as the original metal, but I guess the rust must be cut out to stop it coming back again.

 

[pepper]

Oops, glad my suggestion of super flex bushes seemed to be the right direction though.

 

[iMacThere4iAm]

Yes thanks for that Pepper, it worked out much cheaper than new shocks, since apart from the rubbers they were still in good condition.

I've got some phosphoric acid as a rust treatment, but never used it before so I'm not quite sure what to expect. I just want to kill any rust around the repair so it won't continue to rot afterwards.

 

[Paul Narramore]

These oversized washers are known as 'Repair Washers' (search on eBay) and come in a variety of sizes I would have thought they would be mandatory of shock absorbers.