Rebuilding the houdaille shocks

[Brentwood Bob]

After cleaning the core

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Inspection and assembly

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Thread seal and rubber o ring

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Filling with gear oil, installing second o ring tightening and adjusting the rebuild shock

 

[Brentwood Bob]

The finished product a shiny rebuild shock that is ready to use

 

[Brentwood Bob]

My new friend is an ultrasonic cleaner.
The ball valves are a ***** to clean without it. Guess I will do a video on the process. Or maybe a couple.

 

[SonicRaT]

I've rebuilt a multitude of them myself this past year. The ultrasonic cleaners work great on them as does letting them sit in an evaporust bath. It's amazing how many different variations I have found between the internal designs.

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Something like 54 different shocks. A matched set is not easy to assemble.

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Plan to bring the finished shocks to Turlock Swap this weekend(tomorrow and Sunday). Stop by and have a look.
Still on the hunt for good cores, especially the later, indented cover, and big eared ones.
Space G-12/G-14.

 

[alexiskai]

Plan to bring the finished shocks to Turlock Swap this weekend(tomorrow and Sunday). Stop by and have a look.
Still on the hunt for good cores, especially the later, indented cover, and big eared ones.
Space G-12/G-14.

Bob can you post a pic of the core type you want, or a reference to the RG&JS? I have some I've been meaning to pull off and send you. If they're the kind you want I could expedite.

 

[Brentwood Bob]

PM sent.

 

[Ron Niemeyer]

Bob,
I have 4 shocks on a 29 model A I just bought , 2 of which are leaking. The car was restored approximately 20 years ago. I'd like to send them your way and have you asses them and rebuild if needed.
Let me know your interest and availability.
Thank you, Ron

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Pm sent.

 

[vern hodgson]

Nice set of photos, more dialog and internal valve work would be interesting . You should makea video

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Thanks, will probably do a video.

 

[Bud]

What ultrasonic cleaner did you purchase?

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Bud, went on Amazon. Got the one with blue faceplates. 10 liter, I think. I will see if it is still on Amazon. HFS looks like it.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Having done many in the past…..
It may be self evident but …
Don’t mix internal parts. Don’t try to swap out parts from one shock to another. Always build the whole shock as you get it. Covers and retaining rings MAY work sometimes but nothing else ….at least that’s what I’ve found worked for me

Bill, it even addresses this very thing in the Service Bulletins and instructed the rebuilders to not mix components. Either these "instruments" (-Ford's Engineer's nomenclature!) were very precision involving hand-fitting the pieces, -or the factory just kept substituting parts until they got one to work and then told people not to intermix parts!

Kudos to Bob for being able to rebuild these, and thanks to him for sharing!! I have all of the tooling, and have tried to do several sets, -and I have just not had the success that Bob evidently has. So I am curious, how does one account for wear on the Flange Cover bore and the Wingshaft shaft and ends when rebuilding these?

Glycerin originally looked about like honey and I think was about the same viscosity as 50 wt. oil. I don't think Glycerin was all that lubricating to the shock's wear areas, and it also was very nasty about absorbing water as it wore the Wingshaft. That is why most of the ones I find have major wear internally.

I think on the ones I did, the clearances were not brought back to factory spec (-not really restored per se') and some of the more famous go-to shock rebuilders kinda have the same issue with theirs (-again, not really restored but just repaired) in that the replacement oil actually leaks past the rotor housing and the Wingshaft ends where it really doesn't create the same effect as what Ford and Houdaille intended them to have originally. They also leak ...period.

Again, kudos to those who have long-term success if making these fully functional again. For me, for the amount of time it takes to completely machine and restore these back to where everything is to factory specification takes more time to correctly do than it would take me to spend that same amount of time working at McDonalds to save up enough money to just purchase a brand new set that function exactly as they did when the Model-A was new! .

 

[Oldbluoval]

There are 13 wear surfaces inside the shock (from memory)
Basically if there is enough wear in one, the others are affected. If the housing is worn internally, forget it. I have had some luck turning the reservoir cover but you have to make sure it ends up correctly after turning. Also I’ve bushed reservoir cover and turned the wing shaft. But often the wings have worn the housing…..no pressure !
I cannot invest the time on a worn shock with that much machine work. That’s why I quit building them. About 1 in 10 was rebuildable and you had to often tear down
all 10 know!
…and that was 10-15 years ago. There are obvious signs of junk …full of rust, shaft off center, worked on previous, drilling in the rear..
Stipe shocks really are not out of line on price.

 

[Brentwood Bob]

Brent, few cores are good enough to come all the way back. And the work involved to open each core up is problematic.
Luck is involved.