1930 Dodge 8 shockers - Info required

[Kevin bc]

My  2 1930 DC Dodge 8 has Double Action  Delco Lovejoy "Duodraulic" shockers on them. Other  Australian DC's have single action same as the DA's on them. Must have changed during production

The problem is I can't find info on this particular shocker.

I have re assembled  them, 2 are working hard in each direction, but the other 2 are only working hard in one direction, and soft in the other ,but one is hard in the up direction & the other is hard in the down direction.

They are simple in design, they have 2 screw in valves, a G1 & a G4,, and on the piston there are 2 one way small valves held in by hair springs. Does anyone know which end of the piston these hair springs go, as they are of slightly different spring rates, and different gauge wire. I didn't notice this till today, and of course I had just pulled them all out covered in dried up oil thinking they  were all the same, and didn't take photos..

The large screw in valves are of different settings too., but they are in correct position, as I did take photos of the OS before dis assembling

I guess the main question I need answered should the movement in each direction be the same or different. The fact that the valves are of different ratings, sort of indicates to me maybe the down stroke should be softer. Please correct me if I,m on the wrong track.

As G1 is the heavier valve I am thinking that the heavier hairspring should be at that end of the piston, but that is only from a  logical point of view.

I have found a drawing  of the shocker, which shows the principle of operation, but has little text or explanation with it.

Any info would be appreciated

 

Kevin BC

[Spinneyhill]

Hello Kevin.

 

No response! I also am interested in this - my DC shocks are leaking a bit. Are they similar to those on the DL? Taylormade has a pictorial sequence of him restoring his DL shocks on p.23-24 of his thread on Daphne.

 

MoToR's Manual, 1947 has drawings and basic explanations of a number of Delco shock absorbers but I think the earliest might be a bit more recent. None of them look like what is on my car (which is Canadian so may be different to yours).

[keiser31]

Try here for information or rebuild....http://www.applehydraulics.com/brakes.htm#usmaster

[Taylormade]

Mine were single action so my rebuild may not apply.  I did discover that the only two things that usually fail are the shaft seal or wear to the shaft, both of which are addressed on my thread.

[Kevin bc]

Hi guys

 Thanks for the replies, not too many out there that know anything about these shockers, "apple hydraulics" have no info on my type. Other then a couple of drawings they don't seem to exist. I got onto a older person in Sydney who used to rebuild shocks, doesn't know of my particular type but he told me that the double action shocks, around 1930  did in fact have different compression  rates in either direction.So that's answered one of my questions.

 I don't know if they are the same as the DL, I suspect not ,as later DC's than mine had reverted to the DA model shocks which were single action & mounted vertically. Mine are mounted horizontally. If yours are vertically mounted then there  are several good articles on the net on how to restore them, as they would be the same as DA search DA shockers.

I have 3 out of the 4 working OK now, but I suspect perhaps the Piston of the 4th has a little wear in it & maybe some bypass is happening, which is giving me the soft return in the down direction. I have spare valves but none of them make any difference to this shocker ,so the only other part that can fail is the actual piston

 

Regards

Kevin bc

[Kevin bc]

Guys

a couple of hours later

Spinneyhill

Had a look at page 23-24 Daphne, those are like the DA shocks, unfortunately nothing like mine. If yours are double acting and leaking at the arm seal, you will be able to get a modern seal from your local bearing place. I will check tomorrow to see if I still have the No. I pulled the steel cap out, and the old seal, and the new double edged seal went in without any trouble.

Taylormade

keep up the magnificent resto story

 

Regards

Kevin bc

[Taylormade]

Thanks, Kevin.  It's fun, but sometimes frustrating, to figure out how parts of these old buggies were constructed, and then to restore said parts.  Modern seals did not work in my shocks because of the curvature of the dome housing prevented them from seating correctly.  Luckily, the cork seals from 31 Chevy shocks (basically the same shock) fit perfectly and were readily available.  Good luck getting that last shock working correctly.

[ply33]

FWIW, the Delco "double acting" lever action shocks on my '33 Plymouth have less resistance with the axle going up and more going down. I think that was fairly common in that era and I would not be surprised if your '30 Dodge was supposed to be the same.

[Kevin bc]

Ply 33

Thanks for that info, that's what I have been wanting to find out, that's basically what mine are doing, but I was unsure if that was what was supposed to happen, appears they are acting correctly except for the last one which is very soft  with the axle going up, we'll see what they are like once on the car

 

regards

kevin bc

[Ron Lawson]

Just putting in my two bobs worth.In the Watson Stabilator book they go into depth on how the recoil of the compressed spring is so violent under extreme conditions The idea of those old single acting shocks being either strap type or oil type  was to resist that recoil  so I guess that the double action ones would work the same with the most resistance being on the recoiling spring motion  As I said just my just my opinion   Ron

[robert b]

Kevin can you post some pics of these shocks as it might help us to help you with some info on them Bob

[Kevin bc]

Robert b

Here are some photos that might jag someones memory

1st photo

End cap on right

central arm visible cover plate removed

 riveted bracket at top moves piston L or R

3rd 4th photo show  2 screw in valves

Not much else to show - small filling screw 3rd photo top right hand, and 4th photo bottom RHS

 

kevin bc

[robert b]

I dont now if you have this .Patent US1842831 - Shock absorber - Google Patents.html

[robert b]

Kevin if you look up on google the patent above and click on the images you will get a better view , my computer is doing silly things at the moment and wont let down load the file to aaca f bob

[Kevin bc]

Robert

 That's a great find, I knew there would have to be something somewhere on the D???? shockers. Have just printed the info will go & sit down & digest it all, and see if I can come up with an answer to the soft return. Thanks

Kevin bc

[Spinneyhill]

ShockAbsorberPatent.pdf

 

Here is a tidied up version of the patent with the OCR errors corrected... hopefully. You can see where I have added the odd word or two and there is missing text near the bottom, but this is enough to understand how it works and answer Kevin's questions.

 

Good thinking Robert B and thanks for finding it!

Edited July 28, 2016 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)