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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 7:30 pm 
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Ha ha ha. No no. Those were mine. I had a feeling those were from Curt. The set that Dave had I sold to Jay A. I saw them rebuilt at ECXC.

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 8:13 pm 
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MtDewMike wrote:
Ha ha ha. No no. Those were mine. I had a feeling those were from Curt. The set that Dave had I sold to Jay A. I saw them rebuilt at ECXC.

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That's funny! Looks like they're in tough shape. In order to not contaminate this thread further, I'll start a new one. Mike, Sorry for the hijack.
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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:27 am 
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By the way, Happy Birthday Mike! I hope you're doing something great today.

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:17 am 
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murphy wrote:
By the way, Happy Birthday Mike! I hope you're doing something great today.


LOL. Thank's John. Something great was go to work and post here! I'm going to try to take the springs off the shocks tonight.

No need to worry about cluttering up this thread. This is all good info. There's a lot of us with coilovers and everyone always asks where to get them rebuilt and what is needed, etc. I won't be rebuilding the C/O's here, just swapping springs, but I have done it twice now and I have all the tools. It's actually pretty easy and fun. Hardest part is getting the springs off and recharging with nitrogen. I bought a nitrogen setup so I could do it all myself. I'm always willing to help anyone who wants it.

When you want to swap springs, if you can get them down to my house we can use my compressor and go over the C/O's at the same time. Basically, if a coilover isn't leaking at the wiper seal, leave it alone.

EDIT: Murph, I looked at your pic again. Those babies are going to need new bearings in the eyelets at the very least. If you got them for nothing, then it may be worth fixing them. Not sure what Radflo parts cost as I don't have Rads.


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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:18 pm 
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Thanks for the offer to bring them to your place. I appreciate your willingness to take a look at least. Maybe they're a lost cause.

I'm looking into the cost on the parts. Radflo has the rebuild kits for $20/shock. That seems to be all internal parts, like O-rings. Maybe I need them, maybe I don't.

Once I have them in hand I'll see what size uniballs I'll need. I saw a post on TheNewX saying new stainless uniballs are $22 each at McMaster-Carr (at the time of posting).

I'm not sure about the misalignment spacers. I'll probably have to call Radflo to find out about them. They only have generic spacers in their online store, not the Nissan specific ones.

Most forums on the net say soaking them in Coca-Cola for a few hours and a wire brush are the best things to clean out the threads. Same idea as cleaning pennies. I guess it's the phosphoric acid.

I'm not sure about the valving. There is a chance it would be significantly heavier than I needed. Considering they have 750's on them now.

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 5:39 am 
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I'm alive. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. The bottom spring retainers needed a little more persuasion than I would have liked to come off. Banging on them with a rubber mallet with a crusty piece of junk spring in the press was a bit unnerving but all went well. Now, on with the pictures!

First we have to get that upper mount off. 3/4 wrench and socket wedged in there will suffice.

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I say it all the time. Anti-seize is your friend in the Northeast. From the outside, these bolts were a brick of rust. Once pulled, under all that grey Satan's goop is a bolt in good shape.

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Now the fun part. Into the press it goes.

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Crank away on it, whack the retainer a couple of times, and presto. One busted spring removed.

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Here's a good possibility why the spring broke. The shocks both lost nitrogen pressures. They've been working as basically a coil carrier for God only knows how long. I have no idea why they lost pressure. I was told by Greg years ago that all you really have to do is check the pressure every so often. I had never had an issue loosing pressure so it slipped my mind to check. It's possible an internal seal is bad and has let the nitrogen pass into the shock body. I don't think that happened though because there was no pressure at all in the shock as it would compress but no rebound. If there was nitrogen in the shock body it would probably have forced the oil past the wiper seal and the shock should still have rebounded. Hard to say for sure what happened without tearing the shock all the way down but we're not doing that here. Pressure set at 150psi. DO NOT set them at the max of 200psi if you do this at home. Downsouth Motorsports sets all their shocks at 150psi when they ship them and from my own experience, your seals last longer if not set at the max.

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Both shocks stripped down.

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And lastly both broken springs laying on the floor. New ones will go in the week along with painting the upper mounts and the front part of the frame while I have access. Once it's all back together it'll be test drive and adjust the UCA's to make sure the camber is close.

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One last thing. I will edit the post above. The SwayAway Titan Swap coilovers at 5.5" travel, 18" length (eye to eye) shocks. They are indeed a goofy size. IF you can turn the upper retainer/adjuster ring a 12" coil should be able to work. The 13" coil these came with, combined with the 1" lower spring riser put a considerable preload on the shock. It also makes it difficult to find anything else that will fit in that space. Fox has nothing off the shelf that is 18" overall. I don't know about King and I don't know the overall length of the Radflo T/S coilovers. If I had to buy new ones, I'd get The Radflo's from Nisstec.


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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:47 pm 
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Nice 8)

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 2:51 pm 
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Found that one of the shocks wouldn't hold a charge. So, in haste, or annoyance, or both, I ripped it apart last Friday night. I also forgot that when you pull the hose end of the reservoir out nothing is keeping the oil in the shock... :roll:

That made a mess. Since the shock shaft moved freely with no charge I was pretty sure the shock didn't emulsify (let the nitrogen from the chamber past the floating piston and into the shock body.) That was good news. It meant the leak was on the reservoir side. Problem was that damn shock was so rusty I had to beat and bang and hammer and pull to get the caps off and I could not for the life of me get the shock shaft out of the shock body. That's an issue since you have to pull the shock shaft to refill the shock... Or you do the Mike fill... Slowly pour the oil backwards down the hose end into the shock body.

It was like 11PM and I'd had just about enough of this crusty piece of crap so I said the hell with it. Found an old O-ring seal from a previous rebuild that looked to be in good shape, threw that on the Schrader valve end of the reservoir, cleaned the seals and bands I could get to, put in oil and sealed it up. Pressurized the shock and... Leaked like a sieve. After a bunch of cursing I found the Schrader was loose. Couldn't find my valve stem tool so I tightened it the hillbilly way with a scrawl and needle nose pliers. Put the gauge back on and topped the shocks Nitrogen off.

Checked it the next morning and it seemed to be holding. Checked it after a few days away and it seemed to be holding. Said, good enough for me and threw the new springs on.

Image

I also painted the upper mounts. Hoping to have it back together and driving on Saturday.


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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:10 pm 
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Nice Job :thumbup:
they will def. get a work out :2712: ...lol

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:58 am 
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Bass4Runner wrote:
Nice Job :thumbup:
they will def. get a work out :2712: ...lol


Good. I'm tired of spending money on this lousy IFS. Truck works good but it's honestly a pain in the ass since everything is either a one off part or difficult to access to work on.

The only reasonable solution is to cut it all off... :shock: :D


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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:33 am 
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Niice


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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 10:10 am 
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No pictures but it's back on it's own weight and driving. Took it for a spin down a dirt road by the river and it seems to work pretty good. Springs all creak but I care not. It doesn't thump and bang like it did and I think I got the alignment pretty good and certainly better than I had it when I first put the UCA's back in. Truck doesn't seem to pull one way or the other.

Now, oil change, front/rear diff fluid change and check the winch and I think it's ready for B2SR. I should change the T-case and Transmission fluids (been 3 years) but it's all full synthetic and I've put maybe 10-12K miles on the truck in those 3 years. Should be OK.


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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 8:30 pm 
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I got MtDewMike's old coilovers from Curtis on Thursday. Today I have been in extensive email conversation with Glenn at Radflo. It sounds like the coilovers are a lost cause. Apparently Greg at PRG used uniballs with 1/2" bolts in his earliest coilovers. This causes slop since the LCA uses a 14mm bolt stock. A 1/2" bolt is 1.3 mm, or a little less than 3/64" too small if my conversion is correct. He will not give me part numbers to rebuild these shocks. I can't say I blame him. My safety and their reputation are on the line.

In my last email to him I asked if the entire lower bracket could be removed and replaced with one that accepts the correct uniball. I'm sure it won't be read until Monday, as I sent it to him after hours. I'm also sure the answer is going to be no, or it will be cost prohibitive.

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:35 pm 
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Hmm. I'd be surprised if he can't replace that, John. The second set I had were sold to Jay from xterranation, and those were from PRG as well. Jay had them rebuilt earlier this year, and was sporting them at ECXC.

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 Post subject: Re: Mod, Maintenance, Whatever
PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 5:04 am 
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I did ask him. I'm pretty sure it just threads on. I would need to pull one to replace the adjustable lower spring perch on one of them anyway. After reading through our conversation again he wrote this-

"They are a very old version of the original shocks we made for PRG. He used to use a 1/2" bolt due to the available bearing size. We subsequently changed this later. You are not able to upgrade the shocks to the correct bearing size to suit the OE bolt due to the length parameters."

I understand the correct bearings are not available for the current setup. I can't tell if he means by swapping the lower bracket to one that can accept the correct bearings the setup will make the coilovers too long. I'm sure I'll hear back by end of Day Monday.

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