Knee Action Shocks. Need to bounce and idea off you!

Hello All,

First I'd like to thank all of you who contributed to my prior post. This is my first Buick and I've finally worked out many bugs and been driving it for quite some time now. Gotta love straight 8's. I have a 1951 Buick Special with Dynaflow. I've noticed that my left front knee action shock is leaking badly. So far I've tried jack oil with stop leak and that didn't seem to help. I've heard of people intalling a grease gun fitting and pumping full of chassis grease?

Question: Will this work and what are the ramifications of the action? Stiff suspension??

I really don't want to go through the work/cost of removing and having it rebuilt. Open to clever ideas.

If fixing a leaky shock correctly is too difficult and expensive for you, then maybe this is not the right car for you.

Thank you. I'm looking for a temporary fix until I can properly fix.

Apple Hydraulics will do a complete rebuild. Not terribly expensive.

Thuff, there are no easy fixes. Grease will not leak, but shock will not perform. The only way is to reseal it. Five Points, in California, will rebuild and send one to you. You then send yours back for credit. At least they did this in '09 when I did mine.

Ben

You've already tried adding oil and additives. There is no remaining "quick fix" other than a proper rebuild. It could be much more costly to repair if you damage the shocks by attempting some kind of alterations, because then your units may no longer be rebuildable and you might have to pay the full core charge.

Well, buick man really likes your ad line … need to 'bounce' an idea off you " …. Especially when referring to Knee Action Shocks :)/

Mine leak pretty bad. Has anyone rebuilt / resealed these at home or should I just send them out?

Thx

Phil

Simpler to send them out. Although Willie "Old Tank" Putnam has done the back ones and has a tutorial on his website.

Ben

I saw that tutorial on rebuilding but you wave to cut the arm and refit with a machined bolt and nut and good lord, it's better to get them rebuilt by Apple Hydraulics.

Yeah, not for the faint of heart. And mine failed.

Ben

Yeah, not for the faint of heart. And mine failed.

Ben

Do you want your money back??

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Do you want your money back?

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Nope. Money well spent:o

Ben

I "rebuilt" the rear shocks on my '55 per Willie's instructions and did not have to cut the arm. I had a good, strong puller and the arms pulled off with no problems. After putting the O-ring on I used my shop press to put the arms back on. Note that before taking the arms off I marked their position so i could put them back on in the same position. After 2 years and about 3,000 miles the leaks haven't reappeared (knock on wood).

Thanks again Willie.

Joe, What is the model of that puller?

Looks like posi lock 104, or 106. Either would work I imagine. Well except that the 106 is 10 tons, and the 104 is only 5.5 tons. I wonder how much it really takes?

I have one of those and it didn't touch my shock.

Maybe I needed the bigger version.

The other problem I had was that the third arm on the puller didn't want to cooperate.

I'm thinkin a hydraulic press would be in order..................Bob

Willie et. al.:

As Wheelnut surmised, it is a Posilock Gear and Bearing Puller (Model 106). I used a 3/4" breaker bar on the puller to remove the shock arm. With that length bar I didn't have to use much of my force to break it loose. Once broken free I used my 1/2" ratchet to work it off. I ended up taking the arms off of 3 rear shocks. The first one was a test case and it was off of an old 1953 Special parts car; it is the same shock as '55 shock. Here is a better picture of the puller:

I see there is a guy on Ebay that does rebuilds on these for like $140 per unit for rears. You have to contact him for front rebuild prices. I don't know anything about his work but he has a 100% rating. Hope this helps.

I am trying to assess the condition of my knee action shocks on my recently acquired 1949 76C. I know there is the old test for tube shock cars we did in the past - push down on a front fender corner (or rear corner) to get the car rocking strongly and then let off. If the car went back to motionless in three up-down cycles your shocks were ok. I know the '49s were softly sprung when new but is there a comparable test for the knee-action shocks? Mine returns to rest after four up-down cycles now.