Shock Tech

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Jan 16, 2019
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Yeah, but the work should be very similar correct? Besides setting the IFP height, is there anything really different when rebuilding them or changing the valving?

No, that's my point. The only difference is the IFP. If you can do one you can do the other.
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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No, that's my point. The only difference is the IFP. If you can do one you can do the other.
Gotcha! Yeah seems easy enough. I'm sure the first one will be a decent learning experience, but from there, it sounds as simple as changing brakes.
 
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Gotcha! Yeah seems easy enough. I'm sure the first one will be a decent learning experience, but from there, it sounds as simple as changing brakes.

When you all do plan on doing it let me know! If I can swing it I'll cruise up with some tools and walk you through it.
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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When you all do plan on doing it let me know! If I can swing it I'll cruise up with some tools and walk you through it.
Sounds like a solid plan to me. We can drink an excessive amount of beer while we are at it too.
 

Hank

Sarcastic asshole
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Oct 3, 2018
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SF Valley CA / Park City UT
When you all do plan on doing it let me know! If I can swing it I'll cruise up with some tools and walk you through it.

Sounds like a solid plan to me. We can drink an excessive amount of beer while we are at it too.

Can I join? I'll bring my ADS Shocks for us to fuck with too! then we can all figure out how ADS Builds theirs.
 

4runner DOA

Hold my beer
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Can I join? I'll bring my ADS Shocks for us to fuck with too! then we can all figure out how ADS Builds theirs.

In pending date. Tell me what I need to buy and we can look at my rears. I need to get out to @AssBurns anyway so he can check my nitrogen psi. Might just need to bump that up front/rear to stiffen things up a hair.
 
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Noticed one of my front icon shocks was leaking. Pulled it last night to see how bad it was. I have a seal kit for it but not any oil or nitrogen on hand to rebuild it, but I have a trail run planned this weekend so I just wanted to see how bad it was. Shock has lost a bit of fluid and has a small dead zone but nothing crazy. Feels normal driving it, I'll get around to rebuilding it next week sometime.

Decided while it was out to add a 1/4" of preload to level out my truck a bit... things took a turn for the worse. Spent almost 3 hours oiling, heating, and heating the shit out of the threaded coil collar. The aluminium collar had some corrosion on the threads and more than once I almost gave up. Clamped it as hard as was possible in the vice without crushing the tube, and threaded some long bolts in to the top hat with a pry bar wedged between and against my bench to stop it from spinning. Got finally got it free, scrapped out the corrosion and threw it back in the truck. Not without catching my hand between a hammer and a hard place...
Bad shot of the inner threads on the coil collar
https://flic.kr/p/QDjE7M Pic of my hand and my new cold forged pin wrench
https://flic.kr/p/23NbwFX https://flic.kr/p/2d1QW1V
 

4runner DOA

Hold my beer
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Noticed one of my front icon shocks was leaking. Pulled it last night to see how bad it was. I have a seal kit for it but not any oil or nitrogen on hand to rebuild it, but I have a trail run planned this weekend so I just wanted to see how bad it was. Shock has lost a bit of fluid and has a small dead zone but nothing crazy. Feels normal driving it, I'll get around to rebuilding it next week sometime.

Decided while it was out to add a 1/4" of preload to level out my truck a bit... things took a turn for the worse. Spent almost 3 hours oiling, heating, and heating the shit out of the threaded coil collar. The aluminium collar had some corrosion on the threads and more than once I almost gave up. Clamped it as hard as was possible in the vice without crushing the tube, and threaded some long bolts in to the top hat with a pry bar wedged between and against my bench to stop it from spinning. Got finally got it free, scrapped out the corrosion and threw it back in the truck. Not without catching my hand between a hammer and a hard place...
Bad shot of the inner threads on the coil collar
https://flic.kr/p/QDjE7M Pic of my hand and my new cold forged pin wrench
https://flic.kr/p/23NbwFX https://flic.kr/p/2d1QW1V

I've always sprayed my collars and threads down first thing before trying to move them. Never had an issue with my Icon collars.
 
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I think last time I moved them was February last year. They took a little convincing but nothing like this. I sprayed them down with PB last week a couple times thinking I was going to have time to do a rebuild. Can't really say it helped much. Climate up here (Calgary, Canada) puts us in salted and sanded roads for nearly 8 months of the year and no matter how well you clean and lube everything turns to shit eventually.

I cracked the lower cap off which was a nice surprise to see how clean it was. Earlier this year I bought some ~4 year old fox 2.0 with reservoir and compression adjuster that were completely crusted and seized.

https://flic.kr/p/245Ph5j Soaking in oil for about a week with holes drilled in the bottom cap of the shock. Just praying something loosened up
https://flic.kr/p/JGVcbJ No luck. Time to drill out the cap and break the outer edge away, being careful not to destroy the bearing cap underneath.
https://flic.kr/p/26LJdwU https://flic.kr/p/JGV561 Got the remaining bit of cap off, unfortunately the threads on the bearing cap were ruined. 3' pipe wrenches conquer all
https://flic.kr/p/HbDuCM Stole a new bottom cap and lower bearing from another set of destroyed shocks my local shop had and rebuilt everything. If I added up the hours trying to rebuild these things it would have been way cheaper just buy some new ones. But for $300 and another $50 for seals and oil it was nice to get into these and see the internals. Plus they ride as good new, look like hell though.
 

4runner DOA

Hold my beer
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I think last time I moved them was February last year. They took a little convincing but nothing like this. I sprayed them down with PB last week a couple times thinking I was going to have time to do a rebuild. Can't really say it helped much. Climate up here (Calgary, Canada) puts us in salted and sanded roads for nearly 8 months of the year and no matter how well you clean and lube everything turns to shit eventually.

I cracked the lower cap off which was a nice surprise to see how clean it was. Earlier this year I bought some ~4 year old fox 2.0 with reservoir and compression adjuster that were completely crusted and seized.

https://flic.kr/p/245Ph5j Soaking in oil for about a week with holes drilled in the bottom cap of the shock. Just praying something loosened up
https://flic.kr/p/JGVcbJ No luck. Time to drill out the cap and break the outer edge away, being careful not to destroy the bearing cap underneath.
https://flic.kr/p/26LJdwU https://flic.kr/p/JGV561 Got the remaining bit of cap off, unfortunately the threads on the bearing cap were ruined. 3' pipe wrenches conquer all
https://flic.kr/p/HbDuCM Stole a new bottom cap and lower bearing from another set of destroyed shocks my local shop had and rebuilt everything. If I added up the hours trying to rebuild these things it would have been way cheaper just buy some new ones. But for $300 and another $50 for seals and oil it was nice to get into these and see the internals. Plus they ride as good new, look like hell though.

Yep, noticed you were from Canada after I made my comment. Granted we don't have the usual mess of salt, our dirt can be very mineralized and corroding, especially when it's wet. After sitting caked in mud from death valley for 2 weeks every piece of exposed metal was rusted. Ive got some work ahead of me for rust issues.
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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Yep, noticed you were from Canada after I made my comment. Granted we don't have the usual mess of salt, our dirt can be very mineralized and corroding, especially when it's wet. After sitting caked in mud from death valley for 2 weeks every piece of exposed metal was rusted. Ive got some work ahead of me for rust issues.
Yeah anytime you see dirt or mud below sea level, it’s full of salt. I always try to wash my truck after playing in Ocotillo Wells. That area is all below sea level. If you are brave enough to get close to Salton Sea, your shit will be rusting before you can get home. That mud has so much salt in it, it’s insane. I made that mistake once. My brother left the mud on his XJ for a few months and the rust was pretty wild considering how dry our climate is.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2019
Messages
35
Age
32
Noticed one of my front icon shocks was leaking. Pulled it last night to see how bad it was. I have a seal kit for it but not any oil or nitrogen on hand to rebuild it, but I have a trail run planned this weekend so I just wanted to see how bad it was. Shock has lost a bit of fluid and has a small dead zone but nothing crazy. Feels normal driving it, I'll get around to rebuilding it next week sometime.

Decided while it was out to add a 1/4" of preload to level out my truck a bit... things took a turn for the worse. Spent almost 3 hours oiling, heating, and heating the shit out of the threaded coil collar. The aluminium collar had some corrosion on the threads and more than once I almost gave up. Clamped it as hard as was possible in the vice without crushing the tube, and threaded some long bolts in to the top hat with a pry bar wedged between and against my bench to stop it from spinning. Got finally got it free, scrapped out the corrosion and threw it back in the truck. Not without catching my hand between a hammer and a hard place...
Bad shot of the inner threads on the coil collar
https://flic.kr/p/QDjE7M Pic of my hand and my new cold forged pin wrench
https://flic.kr/p/23NbwFX https://flic.kr/p/2d1QW1V

Wouldn't be a bad idea to put some anti seize on them next time. I'm not familiar with extremely corrosive environments but it definitely helps the situations I have seen.
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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Anyone have an idea of what happened to eshocks.com? Looks like it's now a Russian online gaming site now? It used to be the only place to buy Bilstein replacement parts. I want to buy new valve shims for my shocks, but nobody sells them. I guess I might have to contact Bilstein directly, which I hear takes forever and has little support.
 

4runner DOA

Hold my beer
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Anyone have an idea of what happened to eshocks.com? Looks like it's now a Russian online gaming site now? It used to be the only place to buy Bilstein replacement parts. I want to buy new valve shims for my shocks, but nobody sells them. I guess I might have to contact Bilstein directly, which I hear takes forever and has little support.

Try DC Shocks in San Dimas, they might be able to help you out. They did my Icon rebuild.
 
Joined
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Messages
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Age
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Anyone have an idea of what happened to eshocks.com? Looks like it's now a Russian online gaming site now? It used to be the only place to buy Bilstein replacement parts. I want to buy new valve shims for my shocks, but nobody sells them. I guess I might have to contact Bilstein directly, which I hear takes forever and has little support.
Let me know if you find a source. I have a buddy who wants me to help him do a tuning session on his new desert truck with Bilstein bypasses in the rear and I need to source some shims.
 
Joined
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Also, anyone in the SoCal/San Diego area, the garage is now setup for full rebuilds. HMU and we'll try and work something out.
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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So right now I have Bilstein 7100's in the rear. The valving is 255/70, and now that I've done the 4-link, softer springs, and tire carrier; the shocks are WAY too soft when loaded for wheeling. So my plan was to just rebuild, and revalve them, but I know rebuild parts and valve stacks aren't the easiest to get from Bilstein, plus the uniball rod ends need to be replaced since they have slop. I'm thinking now that it might just be better to buy new shocks with the stiffer valving that I want, then either sell the current shocks for cheap, or maybe use them for secondary shocks up front since my current shocks up front are just Bilstein 5100's and they are too soft to really keep up to the way I like to drive.
 

Itaro

Seriously, FJB
Joined
Oct 5, 2018
Messages
13,115
So right now I have Bilstein 7100's in the rear. The valving is 255/70, and now that I've done the 4-link, softer springs, and tire carrier; the shocks are WAY too soft when loaded for wheeling. So my plan was to just rebuild, and revalve them, but I know rebuild parts and valve stacks aren't the easiest to get from Bilstein, plus the uniball rod ends need to be replaced since they have slop. I'm thinking now that it might just be better to buy new shocks with the stiffer valving that I want, then either sell the current shocks for cheap, or maybe use them for secondary shocks up front since my current shocks up front are just Bilstein 5100's and they are too soft to really keep up to the way I like to drive.
This is one of the few acceptable times in this world to “go blue” :rockon:
 
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