Shock problems.... need help

[TC3Racer]

hey guys,
I have a Storm Pro and my rear shocks have been acting up lately. I use 40WT. AE shock oil and everytime i rebuild them they never rebound more than an inch. the driveshafts are not level when it rebounds. i have shock spacers on both of 'em. they have little holes in the shock cap i guess to auto-bleed the shocks since whenever i tighten the shock cap a bit of shock oil bleeds out and i figure this is normal anyway. Do i need to pick up some new shocks or thicker oil or what should i do? there is a bit of gunk from oil leaking out of the body on the bottom where the shock shaft goes in. I dont know if they are shot or what but i need a bit of help here. thanks alot.

[highroller]

I am more familar with Associated shocks, old duratax gold.
Sounds like you need a rebuild - buy a shock rebuild kit and do all the shocks to prevent another one from going bad later.
Apply a little shock oil to orings and shock shaft to ease assembly and prevent o ring from tearing. After filling with shock oil, move shaft up and down to remove air that may get trapped inside, refill with oil if needed and replace cap. Shock action should be smooth as consistant. For plain aluminum shock bodies, use a Q-tip, silver polish and Dremel or drill, cut or break q-tip in half and chuck in drill add a drop to inside of shock body start drill/dremel and polish inside of shock body to get a smoother action - the outside can be done to get a shiny finish. Then use a paper towel of cloth working it inside to remove any polish residue.

[rocknbil]

When you say "every time I rebuild them they never rebound more than an inch" do you mean when they are off the car?

If this is true, you are by far overfilling your shocks. Shock oil alone is not supposed to cause rebound, that is what springs are for - shock oil controls the speed at which the shocks move. If you overfill them, when the piston goes up the pressure inside the shock increases and there is no place for the oil to go but out the seals - causing the gunk you see, a shock oil leak.

The correct method is to fill the shock to the top, move the piston up and down to allow any bubbles under the piston to float up, slide the piston almost all the way into the shock allowing any excess to run out, then cap it off. This insures you won't get any high internal pressure in use.

You've probably blown the seals and like highroller says, just need a rebuild, which consists of replacing the seals and any snap clips inside the shocks to hold them in place.

As for your level driveshafts, I'm not familiar with your model but that is usually done by some adjustment of the top of the spring, usually a C-shaped spacer or a clamp, to adjust how high the top of the spring sits on the shock. You didn't say whether the driveshafts are high in the middle or low, but if they're high with too-full shocks, try filling them correctly and see how it goes.

[TC3Racer]

I'm talkin' about when they are installed on the car (GS Storm) I'll try out what highroller said that sounds like it should solve the problem. Anyway when i re-oil them, i completely emtpy the old dirty oil and then re fill the shock body, pump it a few times, top it off and then install.

[rocknbil]

Well before you put the cap on, push the piston in almost all the way to the top. Think about this - you have a certain amount of volume in the shock. You fill it with oil. Then when it's on the track, the piston and rod go into the shock. Now there's more volume than can fit in there and the pressure increases, causing it to blow out the seals.

[Got Speed]

If it is leaking oil from the bottom of the shock then it is shot. You can push the suspension arm all the way down though yourself can't you? If so it sounds like the same problem I had with mine. There is a washer underneath the shock piston that sits on a little step on the shock shaft. After enough jumping the step on the shock shaft ends up bending the center of the washer out allowing the piston to slide freely up and down the shock shaft. I replaced it with a larger thicker washer. For some reason this also made the shock bind at a certain point.

[-=ADA$=-]

if it didnt happen before, than i dont know what is it, but it may be that you need harder springs!!