F15a shock absorbers
 

Hi guys, I am ready to install the front shocks on my cab 11 but am wondering if there is a way to open them up to check condition/repair ? I just don't want to bolt them on if they are no good.Is there a way to test them on the bench?

OK, did some research and got some info.Called Houdaille Hydraulic suspension.There is actually a lot of info on the interwebs. I think I can check 'em out.Still,if anyone has any tips I would be greatful.
Dave

I was always told that if they are not seized, leave them alone. It is a can of worms to avoid.

Good luck on them.

Some info on how the shocks work in THIS THREAD.

Thanks Rob and Tony.If they work,leave "em alone. Not something you want to try to rebuild unless you are desperate!

Actually, those Houdaille style don't look that bad. It is the double piston type as found on the Fords and the M135 GMCs that I was warned about.

Houdaille Shock absorbers- dsassembly
 

Hi Dave,

I agree with Rob and Tony wholeheartedly. If they move, just work them a bit, flush them out, and replace the hydraulic oil.

If they are frozen and you cannot find some that move then you may have to try to tear then down.

I recreated the pictures below of how I got mine apart after Frank Curcio removed the arms for me with his puller and heat. As I said in an earlier post referred to here, to do it again I would try to do it myself first. I didn't have an oxy set in 2004 when I had mine rebuilt however.

Before removing the arm mark the arm and the shaft to make sure you get it back on the correct spline. Some are factory marked with a chisel mark. A centre punch mark will also do the job.

I used a strap wrench to remove the cover. I made a tool to remove the inner ring from a piece of steel with three bolts 120 degreees apart. In actuality it came out quite easily but I was expecting the worst. Gentle persuasion with a brass drift on the notches may be all that is needed in hindsight. In any event a tool as heavy as the one I made is not necessary. Once that ring is out the rest should just pull apart easily if not frozen with rust.

Hope this may be of some help.

Cheers,

Hello
Is there a seal that can leak on the schaft, my one are all free but all empty of oil?

Cheers

Houdaille shock absorbers- shaft seal
 

Hello Harle,

Yes, there is a seal at the wingshaft. In the Spare Parts List it is listed as CO1TS 18043 "Packing- wingshaft".

I just checked my old samples and as per attached photo the original packing is on the left, and an "O"ring that was used as a substitute by the rebuilder is on the right.

After 13 years since being rebuilt, there has been no leakage at the shaft so the "O"ring seems to be a good substitute for the packing.

Cheers,

Houdaille shock absorbers- slight correction
 

Good Day All,

Slight correction of the previous information:

After looking at a few more Houdaille shock absorbers I seem to remember now that all have the factory chisel mark for the correct location of the arm on the wingshaft.

I am reasonably sure that the centre punch mark shown in the photo is for the location of the indicator arm on the tension adjustment screw. I believe this is also done at the factory where the correct tension in the shock absorber is set on the bench.

I read that somewhere but cannot put my finger on it to confirm.

Cheers,

As I often say "When everything else fails- read the instructions". See attached photo from Maintenance Manual.
Tension adjuster arm points to chisel mark as per Maintenance Manual. It is also in line with the centre punch mark as it turns out. Makes sense as you have to mark both the shaft and the arm for alignment.

Cheers,

Hello
Thank you Jacques , if a" o ring" can fit, that's cool , it will be easy to find, will try to fix them that way.

Regards
Sylvain

I noticed that one of mine is leaking.I may have to disassemble it anyhow.Thanks for the pics and info Jacques

Hello
What about the puller that you used for the arm, I tryed different ways with a puller , with heat .....But it is still in place.


Other way I heard that the oil is glycerine oil and could be dangerous by heating?

Thank you
Sylvain

Are these shocks the same as the Houdaille ones found on the Model A Ford? They look identical.

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Arm removal
 

Hello Harle,

I was not present when the mechanic removed the shock absorber arms so I do not know what puller he used. He told me. however, that he made up one to do the job. He normally just restores A model Ford shock absorbers.

Heat: He used an oxy-acetylene torch to heat it at the arm around the rotor shaft. A simple propane torch would not be able to heat the arm rapidly enough to expand the hole to make removal easier. From my own experience removing frozen nuts, the speed at which you heat a frozen nut is the most important thing. The idea is to heat the nut rapidly before the heat transfers to the bolt so the nut expands more than the bolt to make the nut removal easier. This principle would also apply to removing the arm from the splined rotor shaft.

I was not there, but I would think it would need to be heated dull red at least to get the arm to expand far enough to pull it off the splines.

Safety: Yes, care must be taken whenever heat is used around any oil. I would assume they were drained and the heat only directed at the arm and the flame kept off the cover. If I did it I would place some insulating material between the cover and the arm also. Perhaps immersing just the cover into a tub of water leaving the arm above the water would be a good safety procedure while heating it.

And to answer your question Andrew they are similar in design but substantially different. Rotor arm shaft and method of attaching the arms are different and I haven't got an A Model shock to compare but I believe they are smaller than the Ford CMP truck ones.

Cheers,

well, I took the shock absorber apart ,which was not that hard to do. Cleaned it out and re-assembled. I replaced the packing with an O ring. The only problem I have is that they leak where the cap threads onto the body. I used a pipe thread sealer but it did not work.Not sure if I will take them apart again, perhaps later when it's driveable.Thanks for all the info, guys.

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Rebuiding
 

Hi Dave,

Great to hear you mostly had success with rebuilding your shock absorbers.

I too, have one leaking shock absorber at the cover even after being professionally restored.

I noticed on some other shock absorbers I have, and in the parts list that there is a gasket between the cover and the lower ring: Part No. C01TS 18032 Gasket- Reservoir. The black gasket can be seen in the photo of the unrestored shock absorber. The restorer just smeared Silastic at the joint between the cover and the lower ring and didn't make a gasket for there. I was a bit annoyed about it but it held on three of them.
He obviously thought he would take the easy way out with silicon sealant.

One day I might dig out the old silicon sealant and cut a neoprene gasket to fit. I should be able to back off the cover and massage a new gasket into place. For the time being I can live with it, as annoying as it is.

As a matter of interest, did you use one of the weaker Locktite thread sealants? That stuff is pretty good. If you use the stronger stuff, however, you would need a gorilla to help you loosen the cover next time!

Cheers

Hello
My schock are also in parts now , I order new gaskets, and waiting for them.
For the reservoir ,I find a small O ring that fit, but will maybe use a tread sealand . I also change the small ring of the adjusting screw .

The schocks were full of a sort of mud and smell ricin oil.
I think cleaning them without opening them would be fast impossible.

Removing the arm is not easy, and need to be heat very hot.

Thank you all for your help!

We know more about this schocks now :thup2:
Sylvain

hmmm...I don't recall seeing any sign of a seal, but I was wondering how the unit was supposed to hold oil.I think I will follow your idea and try to fit a seal in there without taking the whole thing apart again. I did not use Loctite, just a pipe thread sealer,thick stuff. Great info!

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Rebuiding
 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that information too.

I just had a look at the Locktite website and Locktite 565 thread sealer might be a good sealer for added leakage protection on those fine threads on the reservoir cover. It states in the characteristics "controlled strength for ease of disassembly" (Saves calling in a gorilla mate if you ever have to open it up again!)

The beauty of Locktite is it fills microscopic gaps in threads which prevent even low viscosity liquids from passing through.

If I ever pull mine apart again I would consider using it in addition to the gasket.

Cheers,

Good idea,Jacques,and thanks for all the info.
Dave

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Rebuiding
 

Hi Dave,

You are most welcome. Always glad to help.

Had a look at the shock absorber that I pulled apart and I have another thought about the gasket between the reservoir cover and the lower ring.

Looking at the sealing area between them, there is a very distinct taper and not a square mating surface as shown in the photos.

I am thinking maybe an O-ring would do the job there instead of laboriously cutting a gasket. The V groove formed by it would squish the ring tight against the threads and against the edges of the tapered surface.
Those kits to make your own O-rings might do the job. Perhaps 2-3mm diameter O-ring material would work there.

Just a thought anyway. Gluing a length of O-ring material is a lot easier than cutting out a thin rubber gasket and may be worth a try.

Cheers,

Hi Jacques, now I think I see what I did wrong. I was not aware of the O ring gasket. When I took the cover off the ring came off with it, in one piece. How does the ring separate from the cover?

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Rebuiding
 

Hi Dave,

The ring should just come apart from the cover but after 7 decades it probably is well stuck. Rubber becomes a great glue with age. Just look at trying to break the tyre bead on these old trucks.

If the ring stays on the body of the shock absorber, and you want to remove it, it can be screwed off after a good wire brushing of the exposed threads and application of lots of penetrating oil. There is a tiny hole visible on the lower ring so it would not be to difficult to fabricate a special wrench if needed but I just got mine off by wire brushing, lots of oil, and working it back and forth.

Besides sealing the unit I believe the lower ring is to also used to allow the cover to be positioned with the filling plug uppermost. By adjusting the position of the ring when the cover is screwed down tightly it will allow the plug to be on top.

Cheers,

Jacques, thanks for the explanation . Mine was indeed stuck together enough that I thought it was one piece ! Great pics . Thanks so much.
Dave

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Rebuiding
 

Hi Dave,

Good news.

I am just curious if you could confirm if it is an O-ring seal at the cover when you take the lower ring off?

The reason I ask this is that I am having second thoughts if that is an original seal or if the rebuilder just gave that O-ring to me. It could have been something he tried and which didn't work. Would account for all the silicon sealant he used. Memory is a bit hazy from all those years ago. I seem to remember digging out black gunk from between the cover and the ring on the one I took apart.

If it is not an O-ring used there then perhaps its back to cutting out a bit of neoprene to make a flat gasket for that area or trying smaller diameter O-ring material. The parts manual does show a flat gasket there and it is speckled which could be representing rubberized cork material. That would compress into the "V" quite nicely.

Cheers,

Jacques, I took one of mine apart and there was a white fiber gasket in between. When I re-assembled it I made one large oring out of two smaller ones by cutting and super-gluing the ends together. I didn't think the oring would seal against the threads,so I used a wee bit of silicone gasket maker where the oring sits and screwed the reservoir down onto the ring.I will find out tomorrow if it is holding or not.It seemed to fit real nice and I got good compression on the oring.

Jacques, when I unscrewed the reservoir the gasket seemed like some kind of a packing similar to what would be used on a pump shaft.it was well embedded in the threads and came out with a wire brush quite easily. I think packing in the form of a heavy string would be ideal but no idea if such a thing even exists.

Houdaille Shock absorbers- Rebuiding
 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that information.

I deleted the post saying it was an O-ring between the cover and the ring.
Not sure how it got into my box of shock absorbers but it ain't there no more.

Apologies to all for the red herring.

There is no great pressure in the reservoir so a good thread sealer and gasket maker such as Permatex should do the job.
Sounds like it would be almost impossible to source the original sealing material. Anyway, if more modern materials does the job why not use them.

Look forward to hearing there is no seepage on yours.

Cheers,