[Vwdiesel] Damper,brake line, now STRUT !

[Roger Brown]

Gary Shea wrote:
> I was told by someone, can't remember who now, that the cylinder into
> which the bottom of the strut damper fits should be filled with oil, the
> idea being to help distribute the heat out of the damper.  Unfortunately
> they told me this AFTER I'd done both of mine, sigh.  Didn't see
> anything about it in the Bentley, but there was quite a bit of oil in
> there... at the time I just assumed it was from the leaky old dampers,
> which in retrospect doesn't even make sense.
> 
> I used two compressors, tubing clamps to hold the compressors in place
> (without the clamps they kept moving towards each other), and it was
> still kinda scary.  Three sounds good :)

Yes, backfilling the housing with oil is a good idea, helps get the heat out of the shock body, at least on struts with the oil 
stored in the bottom.  I cooked my KYB Gas-a-just struts w/o oil in them, but they ended up filling the housing with the oil 
they leaked out from insde :)  I now do that every time I change struts, plus make sure the strut bearing play is set right:
	http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTricks/index.shtml#StrutBearing


-- 
    Roger