Houlidine Shock Question

DaveK

DaveK

Junior Member
I am trying to take apart one of my shocks so I can rebuild it. The problem is the inner cap will not budge! I bent a Craftsman 3/8 breaker bar trying to unscrew it. What am I doing wrong?

Dave
 
I've seen some with the cover welded in place, that makes them kinda hard to unscrew. Also, a 3/8" bar is way too small. When a small hammer doesn't work you grab a bigger one and swing harder. Same with these, get a bigger bar. Heat can be your friend also, serious heat.
 
Or if you can see any threads, make a 50/50 mixture of ATF and acetone and apply and let it soak in or Kroil.
Paul in CT
 
Not an easy task my friend-How to restore your model A vol 3. has instructions - shows a 4 foot pipe bowing during the dis-assembly process - will need a lot of patience on that one
 
I've had a ten foot piece of RHS on a spanner plus serious heat after soaking in penetrene for three months on one of the shocks I was dismantling. It still didn't budge. I had enough shocks to afford to scrap this one. I ended up fitting it into my lathe and parting the inner cap off. There was no weld. It was just stuck. Sometimes they are not able to be dismantled. I still have the body and other parts to be used as spares.
 
Try making a set up such that you have a up to a 10 foot extension on a very heavy duty socket.

My garage has 2 studs in the concrete floor and a special 1/4" plate shock holder for just such fun.

Heat cycling to break the bonds will also need to be done.

Here is one case where you can only work the problem with some sizable tools.
 
You need serious heat to get them apart. I have heard of guys throwing them in the red hot coals of their BBQ to get them off. I get them red hot and about a 6'0" cheater bar
 
Put all four of mine in the wood stove last winter till they were glowing red, grabbed them one at a time with set of tongs and dropped them in five gallon pail of cool water. Lots of bubbling and steam. After that they came apart easily and were very good condition. We bead blasted and put them back together with new seals and installed, 400 miles so far this year and working fine.
 
I had one that would not turn. I figured nothing lost so I threw it in the wood stove and when it got red hot, I took it out with blacksmith pliers and put it in a vice. Even then it was tough to get to turn but it worked! And it was rebuildable.
 
Begs a question. Except for Kevin's special set-up, how in the world do you hold the base of the shock when using a 6' or 10' breaker bar/pipe? I have a big vise, but with a 10' helper bar, I think I would tear the workbench from the wall. Seems that George's heating/cooling method is easy and effective.
 
A few years ago I sent my four shocks out to a fellow in Colorado for rebuilding. On the phone, he told me that if the large square spud is not free, "don't bother sending it to him". Otherwise he would rebuild others he had with a core charge. Mine were all free.
 
johnsor said:
Begs a question. Except for Kevin's special set-up, how in the world do you hold the base of the shock when using a 6' or 10' breaker bar/pipe? I have a big vise, but with a 10' helper bar, I think I would tear the workbench from the wall. Seems that George's heating/cooling method is easy and effective.
Click to expand...
I have a piece of angle 6"x6" iron bolted to the bench. The shocks are bolted to that through their original hole, with the shaft horizontal. The angle iron is at on end of the bench, so that the undoing action pulls the lever down, effectively pulling the bench into the floor.
 
johnsor said:
Begs a question. Except for Kevin's special set-up, how in the world do you hold the base of the shock when using a 6' or 10' breaker bar/pipe? I have a big vise, but with a 10' helper bar, I think I would tear the workbench from the wall. Seems that George's heating/cooling method is easy and effective.
Click to expand...

Well.... I broke my vise! It was my great grandfathers vise, built like a tank. Next time I am going to try to lift them up to 600 or 700 degrees on the gas grille then try quenching them!
 
I cook them and I have a fixture I put them in to break them loose. Then use a 1- 9/16 socket and 1/2 drive impac to spin the other hub off.
 
Wick said:
I cook them and I have a fixture I put them in to break them loose. Then use a 1- 9/16 socket and 1/2 drive impac to spin the other hub off.
Click to expand...

I must be doing at least something right! I never have had a problem removing the outside cover - find a rubber strap wrench worked very easily on all four of mine. The internal cap, however, is another story. Will be trying your method shortly.
 
Throw them on a barbeque turned up high for a while, then throw them in a bucket of water. This also degreases them. :-)

Doug
 
Lots of heat and dropping into a bucket of cold water worked for me. I also made a set of very heavy duty tools to work on shocks.
 
Thanks for all the input. The shock has been sitting on my bench full of WD40 for about three weeks. I borrowed an impact wrench and tightened then loosened 3 times on the 3rd time of loosening the inner nut it spun free.

DaveK
 
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