Emulsion shocks?
 

Question for you shock experts on what I believe are emulsion shocks. By emulsion, I mean there's no bladder on the top cap, but everything is sealed up to run oil in the aluminum body. These are older RC4WD Kings that don't have the King branding on them. Aluminum, threaded bodies and blue hardware/springs.

Anyway, I can't get these shocks to run properly with oil in them. With the top cap removed and a tiny amount of oil in the body, the piston pushes the oil all the way to the top of the body and out. Once again, this is with barely any oil in the body. Not full of oil at all.

With the top cap on, and still barely any oil inside, the shock reaches a "sticky" spot about 1/4 way into the travel and for the rest of the compression the shock is very hard to compress.

I've tried full of oil, and it's similar except the sticky spot hits sooner. With no oil there is no sticky spot, but then I assume my shocks will be all bouncy and I don't want that.

Any ideas? Buy new shocks? Thanks for any help. Maybe this is an emulsion shock set and I just don't know the secrets to making them work.

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

You screw the top on when the piston in all the way in. It's possible these are just air shocks and just need a drop of oil for lube if the holes in the piston are too small for oil to push through.

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Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

Thanks Voodoo.

It seems like air shocks might be the case here, as there is only one, very tiny hole in the damper piston. That hole is so small that it really looks to be useless.

Any way to control damping on air shocks? Or is my only real adjustment the spring on these?

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

You can make the hole bigger. Or drill a second hole. Results may or may not be consistent.

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Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

Or you can try a thinner oil.

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Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

I am not a shock expert, just guessing.

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Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

I consider anyone who knows more than me an expert.

I thought of drilling some more holes, but the piston is so small I'd need an extremely small bit and my smallest is 1/8" at the moment.

I'm currently trying thinner oil, with not much result. I put 20wt oil in them and still having the same problems.

Time to stop being cheap and buy some other shocks.

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

You can use a hot needle to make holes in plastic.

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Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

I like the desert lizard shocks myself.

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Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

Wont help .... you were right the first post, he just needs to bleed them more.

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

Thanks. I've cruised the forum for advice on how to bleed shocks, so now I'll try that next.

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

Got em working smooth. After reading your tips and reading about shock bleeding, here's what worked:

Fill the shock body mostly full, and cycle the shaft to push air up and out of the fluid. At full compression, the piston was not submerged.

Compress shock fully, and filled the shock body so that ths piston was submerged. Cycled shaft again to get air out.

Compressed shock fully, and screwed top cap on, wiping away excess fluid as it squeezed out. This left me with a vacuum that pulled the shock shaft in at full extension.

Extended shaft fully, and removed top cap to break the vacuum. Compressed shaft halfway, and put the top cap back on.

Problem solved. They work great now. Thanks guys.

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

Nevermind. After I installed them, and let the vehicle sit overnight, one of the shocks was right back at it. It's gets to a point in the compression stroke (about 10%) where it feels like there's 80wt oil in there, and stays that way through the rest of the stroke. It does it on the rebound stroke also. These must be air shocks.

Oh well. I'll eventually replace them with a shock I can adjust the damping on.

Thanks anyways for the replies.

Re: Emulsion shocks?
 

I just posted this in another thread.

You need to work at bleeding them through the threads in the cap.
I put in my oil, screw the cap on a full turn ( just enough so the cap is holding to the body) and compress the shock. With it fully compressed and upright between my thumb and pointer finger and with my other hand I start turning the shock body, while keeping the cap from turning. Your will see the oil coming out from the cap. I check for rebound and repeat above. After doing this several times the rebound lessens. Now if the shock won't fully compress I remove the cap and use a cotton swab to remove oil a little at a time. Like I said it takes a little work. If you remove oil a drop at a time you will likely have more air than you want in the shock.
Hope that all makes sense.
Ernie