Let me show you some pics of the dampers.
How can people be so careless when building them?
Luckily I have a fair few spare parts stashed away. When I build any shocks, even on a new car I tend to give the shafts a bit of a polish with the drill and some peek.
Luckily all of the parts I needed came from a couple of spares packets, a 308360 shock shaft kit and a really old 308310 frame kit. I needed two bottom eyes, a seal head, and all four top eyes to make this lot right. I also swapped two of the top caps for some without scratches.
Whilst I was assembling some new 4way pistons onto the shafts I popped the metal parts in to the tumbler for half hour. This gives a lovely sheen to the polished areas, and makes them look ‘new’ without looking ‘polished’.
Ready to build.
Once built, inserting the ball studs seems to fox most, I use some nifty knipex pliers that close parallel and have no serrations. I have tiny set I take to the track, but these slightly bigger ones are ideal for builds as the mating faces are that bit bigger.
What’s not obvious in this pic is that I have put the top ball stud in backwards, it’s a ‘top tip’ from back in the day to free up the suspension. I think it looks better as it has the little key in the top cap on show.
