[Marck]

Sorry guys another noob question

I have dobinsons up front and currently IFS in the rear and a 40mm dobinsons lift. But the rear left has a loud click in it now. I originally thought it was a loose component but when I pulled the wheel off and put the torque wrench over it all when I compressed the shock you can here it. It still seems to be doing its job but for how long I don't know. I like the way the car rides now and if need be can put EFS back in. But I have a question if anyone has any experience with the iron man nitro gas? Would they recomend them ?

They are quite cheep at at $110 a piece not sure how much the EFS ones are until I get a price.

Is there anything else that I should consider?

Also once I replace the rear shocks is that another wheel allingmnet needed ?

Thanks
Marc

[Gwagensteve]

I can't comment on shock choice, but 100% you won't require an alignment.

[zooks4life]

Is it the bush in the shock making the click? Mine are both damaged (the bushes) and they knock over a peble on the road.a big screwdriver wedged in and leveraged will tell...

[Marck]

Could be the bushes. When driving its noisiest when unloaded. But when you compress the shock by hand you can feel it click.

[zooks4life]

If you can compress the shock by hand its buggered....has it leaked oil? I didn't think you could compress shocks by hand?

[Marck]

No sign of oil. You can compress both sides by hand slowly but you can. Just one side clicks. As I said the ride is good firm and smooth.

[Marck]

Ok I can see how this might be confusing sorry. by hand i had the wheel off and I was able to lift the whole assembly by the drum until the spring provided to much tension maybe 30 mm from memory when I did this one side was noisy and is noisy when driving . When I was installing the shocks I was able to slowly compress them by hand enough to get them into position. Where they no good from the start ?

Thanks
Marc

[fordem]

zooks4life wrote:

If you can compress the shock by hand its buggered....has it leaked oil? I didn't think you could compress shocks by hand?

I've never met a shock I couldn't compress by hand - brand new, right out of the box - in fact, it's one of things you're required to do before installation - stand the shock upright (in the installed orientation), compress fully and then allow to extend half a dozen times or so - and then install.

[zooks4life]

Thats awkward..... haha. I just threw a set of dobinson struts out because u could compress them by hand haha. I just thought uf you could compress them by hand how does it cope with 2 tonne of car bouncing on it all day.... my bad.

[henno]

I think you have a minor misunderstanding of how shock absorbers work, particularly how they go about converting energy to heat (and dissipated accordingly). They aren't exactly like an airbag, in that they aren't a static 'balloon' of gas or oil that is compressed, which I think is what you are thinking. Think of them more of a device that moves oil around and gets hot and releases the stored kinetic energy as thermal energy.

I am explaining this very poorly though, but I'm yet to have a coffee this morning so let's just go with that as my excuse.

[fordem]

The shock is essentially a cylinder filled with oil, and the shock rod connects to a piston with holes in it - when you compress the shock the oil flows through the holes in the piston - the more holes, the larger the holes, or the thinner the oil, the easier it is to move the piston through the oil - but - even with small holes or thick oil, given enough time, you'll be able to move the piston the entire travel of the shock.

In the real world the shock will have thin flexible metal disks that cover the holes to restrict the flow of oil, and a bunch of other stuff which control the rate of flow under different loadings, and different directions of movement - generally referred to as the "valving", if you're interested I have pictures of a disassembled strut I could post.

What you should feel when you compress (or extend) the shock is resistance to movement - so if you can easily compress the shock, that would be an indication that it's defective - gas shocks will generally extend by themselves, so if that is not happening, that would be another indication, and of course, so would be any sign of leaking oil.

[Marck]

And the clicking is this a signof pending failure ?

[fordem]

I would say yes - there is something loose that shouldn't be.

Remove the shock from the vehicle and try to compress/extend it - does the click coincide with "free movement"? The one I took apart had the piston attached to the rod with a nut, and there were also springs that held the valve discs in place - if the nut were to "loosen" or the spring broke, they resulting end play would allow some movement of the rod before moving the piston and that could conceivably produce a click.

[shep]

Back to the original question, I had ironman shocks and 4" lift in my last work car and they were still working after 60000km of keeping a 4000kg landcruiser from bouncing around. Current work car has OME GVM 600kg upgrade and doesn't feel any different. I would use the ironman shocks on my own car.

[Marck]

Well that's 1 good review and 0 bad I will order a pair and see how they go.