FireballV8 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 What kind of oil is used to refill these shocks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Old Guy Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I use hydraulic jack oil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipper47 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I use motorcycle fork oil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom M Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 FireballV8,Would you have a picture of one? I hear knee action shocks mention a few times and I wonder if that is the type I have on my car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_JPIndusi Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I have used hydraulic jack oil and never had any problem. By the way, I have heard the terms "Knee Action" and "Lever Action". I think the Knee Action refers to a suspension on 1940's Chevrolets. My Buicks (1948 and 1953) have the so-called lever action type shock absorbers. There is a set of lever action shock absorbers for a 1953 Buick on eBay at this time.Joe, BCA 33493 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest De Soto Frank Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 True "Knee-Action" suspension was used on high-end Chevrolets and some Pontiacs (?) from 1935 through 1938. This is also known as "Dubonnet suspension".It was an independent front suspension that combined and the spring and shock absorber into one (complex and heavy) unit, one per front wheel.Lower-priced Chevy's continued to use a "straight-axle". In 1939, Chevy began offering a "conventional" "A-arm" independent front end.If you have a MoToR's manual that covers back to 1935, the Chevrolet section has a very good cut-away photo of the Dubonnet suspension unit.All that said, the term "Knee-Action" quickly passed into general usage, and for all intents & purposes became a "generic" term applied to ALL independent front suspentions of the 1930's &'40s; much like "frigidaire", "hoover", "victrola","fluid drive", "floating power" etc. entered the common vocabularly (note the intentional non-capitalization of the brand-names)...Around 1930, many cars with solid axles and leaf springs began to use "lever-action" shock absorbers, made by a number of manufacturers: Houdaille, Delco-Lovejoy, and some others. There were also "friction shock aborbers" (Model A is the most common application for these).The original intent was to retard or dampen the rebound action of the springs AFTER they were compressed by a bump or dip...these shocks are known as "single-acting"... in the mid-1930's, these were evolved to include "double-acting" shock absorbers which dampened the spring action on both compression and rebound (like modern shocks).Your '31 Packard most likely used a Delco single-acting unit...Lever-action shocks clung on until about 1950; the last hold-outs were Buick and Chevrolet trucks.Most other makers had switched to "direct-acting" ("airplane") shocks by about 1940.So, "knee-action" most correctly involves a suspension system that includes the spring for that wheel... and "lever-action" refers to the shock absorber only.In terms of "all-in-one" front suspensions, in the 1940's, Nash had a system that anticated the MacPherson Strut: this set-up combined the front steering knuckle/king-pin, spring, and shock-absorber all into one vertical assembly...again, a MoToR's manual from that era will have an illustration.That's my nit-picking for the day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom M Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Frank,Thankyou very much for the history lesson on the differences between lever and knee shocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest De Soto Frank Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Tom,Being a "weird kid" w/o many friends, I spent a lot of time reading in my "formative years"... I liked mechanical stuff and learning how things worked, and through the years various relatives gave old MoToR's and Chilton's manuals that they no longer had use for... so while my school chums were reading Marvel Comics under the covers with a flashlight, I was reading car repair manuals...There's a lot of neat info in the old MoToR's and Chilton's books, and I've accumulated about a dozen of them over the years... the next great "revelation" was when I picked-up a 1918 edition of "Dyke's Encyclopedia of the Automobile"... a real treasure-trove of auto info from the first two decades of the 20th century...If you run across the old shop manuals at a flea market or yard sale for $5-10 bucks or so, they're well worth the investment !Cheers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom M Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Frank,There was a MoToR's manual on ebay that I was looking at but it went for $190. That is money for new pistons for my Packard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest De Soto Frank Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 $190 for a MoToR's manual ???Dang, I'm sittin' on a gold mine !The blue or green hardbound editions I have are still plentiful, and range from $1 to $20 at swap meets, flea marts, etc... of course, you'll see 'em priced higher...I would not pay more than $20 for one, even if it were perfect.The one down side to the MoToR's manuals is that they do not seem to go back before 1935... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom M Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Frank,Is this like yours? 1931-1937-1st-Ed-Motors-Shop-Manual-1932-33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest De Soto Frank Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Tom,I couldn't get the pics of that particular book to open, but based on the ad's text, this is an earlier edition than I have or have seen...The "garden-variety" MoToR's manuals that I have are the following editions:1935-'42 (green hardbound)1935-'45 Truck (green harbound)1941-'48 (blue harbound)1935-'52 (blue hardbound)1949-'59 ("")1952-'59 ("")I have not yet run across a MoToR's manual covering pre-1935... so the e-bay seller may be correct about his book's "rarity"...The only other auto manual I have pre-1935 (beside my Dyke's manual) is a large ornately-bound "coffee-table" sized auto tune-up and electrical manual published around 1930 by International Correspondence Schools (of Scranton)...the pages are printed on a heavy "slick" paper, similar to the stock from which manilla files folders are made...If these pre-'35 general shop manuals are going for three-figures, I think I would be buying reprints of specific vehicle manuals as needed... unless I REALLY wanted that particular book...Another good source of info are textbooks from old Vocational schools - a friend gave me two hardbound texts from the "Nanticoke Vocational School" here in NE PA, that were authored/editied by Ray Kuns and Tom Plumridge, and are 1949 editions... one book is titled something like "Automobile Engines", and the other is "Automobile Drivetrains and Transmissions"...Both books have copious photos from all the major auto-makers of the day, including Nash, Studebaker, Packard, etc, as well as the Big Three. They cover the development of engines, clutches, tranmissions, u-joints, rear-ends, chassis and suspensions, shock absorbers, brakes, etc. A lot of the material seems to be from the late '20s through mid 1930's...These were class-room text books, so they are very instructive (if sometimes pedantic and repetitive)... these kinds of books often turn-up at library book sales and such... I was surprised at how much "historical" info was included in these books... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Block Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 $190 That had to be a rare MotorCar Manual , or two guys saw something they wanted. i seen things not sell and two later there is bid waring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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