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Re: Lever Shock Oil

To: Ramm Andy <ARAMM@sv.tbgi.com>
Subject: Re: Lever Shock Oil
From: Agustin de la Calle <delacall@bcmp.med.harvard.edu>
Date: Wed, 24 May 1995 13:26:23 -0400 (EDT)
Andy,

I am going to use 40W fork oil, as Jerry Causey suggested
for his B. There you can start and play with the different
viscosities. I was using in my BMW synthetic oil which
was a bit stiffer than the standard stuff, but I had to 
adjust the spring tension, too. Otherwise you'll end up
after a bumpy ride on the low end of your dampers.
So you must also adjust the spring tension when going to
stiffer shocks. A future plan of mine is to take the third 
leaf of the Midget springs (as Alan Costich suggested) and
bolt it to the set of springs I already have. The third is 
the stiffening spring which does not necessarily increase too 
much the height of the ride.            

Be careful not to use too heavy oil. Or you'll eventually 
damage your shocks.
There is a spring under the refill screw which presses a metal 
pin onto a valve where the oil gets squeezed 
through. This builds up a certain resistance for the oil flowing 
through. What some people do is taking that screw and cutting a thread 
in it so that one could screw a bolt through it that pressed more 
(or less) on this spring which pressed the pin onto this oil 
valve. So one can increase the stiffness of the damper.
On motorcycle forks one has as well the opportunity to increase 
the spring tension by using a couple of thick washers. 
Which is _not_ the same as in the lever shocks, but rather like 
increasing the tension of the leaf springs.           

Concerning the lever shocks this might be a safer way of increasing
the stiffness. But still you might risk a ride with higher pressures 
which could lead to blowing gaskets/seals.

In any case notice my disclaimers to save my butt. A car without 
shocks sure looks funny on the road!

Cheers,
        Gus

=====================================================
Agustin de la Calle               '71 MG Midget (red)
Boston, MA              delacall@bcmp.med.harvard.edu
=====================================================


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