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On 28 Oct 2005 at 9:32, Steve Jackson wrote: > Hey Jim--I always heard those Gas Shocks were filled with Nitrogen...kinda > hard to put that back isn't it? I would be interested in seeing the inside > of one myself...never heard of rebuilding a shock! You're ingenious! It's not so hard if you have a cylinder of dry nitrogen handy. You just blow some in there, enough to flush out most of the air which is mostly nitrogen anyway, and then put in the piston. Gas shocks have an extra "floating" piston inside which compresses the gas ahead of it. The chamber on the other side contains the usual damping oil and the damping piston that runs in that oil. I haven't actually put one back together, but it looks like it would be relatively easy. You just flush with N2, put in the floating piston and follow it with the damping piston and shaft, with the end cap assembly preplaced on the shaft. Then use a press to compress the N2 ahead of the floating piston. Once all those parts are compressed you would have to fill the upper chamber with oil and slide the end cap and seal into place. On Bilsteins they are just held there by a kind of snap ring. It's all rather simple once you see how they come apart, but if you did this you'd have to be VERY careful that you could hold it all together with the press until you get that snap ring into place. I wasn't ingenious, just persistent and curious. I noticed a sentence in one of my Mercedes manuals that said something like, "Replace the shocks with a new or rebuilt pair." That got me to thinking that disassembly might be possible, and it was. Note that the OE VW shocks are NOT disassembleable. -- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~