big bore problems

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dvinesquirrel

dvinesquirrel

Well-Known Member
Messages
196
Location
Mays Landing, NJ
i just went through the process of filling and working out the air bubbles on my new set of Big Bores and now that they are assembled when i compress them they rebound slowly. when on the truck they wont even lift it back to normal height.
i am using the white pistons and 40wt oil. no air bubbles and filled to the top when compressed.

any thoughts of where i went wrong :dunno:
 
dvinesquirrel said:
i just went through the process of filling and working out the air bubbles on my new set of Big Bores and now that they are assembled when i compress them they rebound slowly. when on the truck they wont even lift it back to normal height.
i am using the white pistons and 40wt oil. no air bubbles and filled to the top when compressed.

any thoughts of where i went wrong :dunno:
Click to expand...

did you put the plastic spacers back on to compress the springs? btw, i went with the 1.6 plungers after consulting with 2 other's on this site that ran the white.
 
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think you might try changing your plungers. Blazer (i think) recommended going to the 1.6t's & told me that the whites would make my sav 'squat.'
 
figures that i thought about it before installing now i have to break it all down.
thanks frddyj. i'm going to try it now
 
well i just got done switching all the whites to 1.6T and it does the same thing just with a little more resistance to compress the shocks.
is there something i am missing?
 
Do you have a picture of the install? that would help alot or even a short video of them on the truck. It's usually the springs job to push the shocks back up to normal ride height. What springs are you running? The ones that came with it? or stock shock springs?
 
Big bores use hellfire shock springs with a smaller shock sping also to make one long spring assembly, the stock savage plastic shocks springs will not fit on the big bore kit.
 
dvinesquirrel said:
well i just got done switching all the whites to 1.6T and it does the same thing just with a little more resistance to compress the shocks.
is there something i am missing?
Click to expand...

lets see a pic squirrel. only other thing i can think to ask at this point is how many plastic clips you have installed to compress the spring
 
i'll get some pics up tomorrow and a video of the compression.
i started with the 10, 5, and 3 as it came out of the box. then replaced the 3 with 8s followed by all of them. all had seemingly no effect on rebound
 
Honestly seems like you have a leak of some sort. Are you 100% sure your shocks are completely full with oil and leak free? I would take the springs off and test each shock individually and watch on the bottom and by the cap for leaking, if they squeak they leak. I would try dropping the truck about a foot off the bench and then take note of the "Ride Height" and then push down and see if it comes up to that height. You already have way more spacers than you should ever need to hold that truck up. There has to be something wrong with the shocks leaking or something =\

Might add also that when checking a correct shock should be very resistant when the shock end is near the body of the shock, if not impossible to make them touch. And should rebound to 3/4ths of its length on its own without a spring.
 
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Two things I would check. First check to make sure the spacer that goes between the two springs is not binding on the shock bodies. Two of mine did and I found that by removing the large spring and turning upside down they worked better and didnt bind. They are a close fit and if the springs arent bent right they pinch the spacer against the body.
Second When I filled my shocks I filled full with shocks half compressed then installed the bladder which pushes the excess oil out. This is an old MotoX trick. Guys used to compress their forks and then cap to soften them. This creates a vacuum inside the shock when its extended. Maybe your shocks wont rebound fully because of the vacuum and insufficient air volume.

Just watched the vids. Your suspension isnt supposed to sit fully extended. It should sit about half compressed so that you have droop for when it travels over a hole. I have to explain this same thing to guys with full size trucks who crank up the torsion bars and wonder why it rides so bad. (They think they changed the spring rate but in reality its topping out constantly) Second is the 40wt oil. I am running the white pistons with the HPI recomended 20wt and am pretty happy. Maybe I would go 25 or 30 myself.

Have you run the truck? I think you might be surprised.
Just a thought and my 2 cents.

Good luck
 
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TeeWX said:
Honestly seems like you have a leak of some sort. Are you 100% sure your shocks are completely full with oil and leak free? I would take the springs off and test each shock individually and watch on the bottom and by the cap for leaking, if they squeak they leak. I would try dropping the truck about a foot off the bench and then take note of the "Ride Height" and then push down and see if it comes up to that height. You already have way more spacers than you should ever need to hold that truck up. There has to be something wrong with the shocks leaking or something =\

Might add also that when checking a correct shock should be very resistant when the shock end is near the body of the shock, if not impossible to make them touch. And should rebound to 3/4ths of its length on its own without a spring.
Click to expand...

Sorry Tee But this is not correct and is the biggest reason for blown shocks.
All shocks must have air to compress as the shaft is pushed into the body because oil will not. Gases compress. Fluids do not.
Your shocks should only rebound slightly on their own. If they rebound 3/4 they are overfilled
Big bores come with a bladder (Which all good shocks should) that seperates the air from the oil. Air mixing into the oil is bad because it will create bubbles which will compress as they pass through the shock piston orifices. when the bubbles compress it reduces the viscosity of the oil and the effectiveness of the shock.

Shocks should easily compress fully and rebound slightly.
 
yep mine rebound to that height with no clips(vids). I suggested 25 oil when this thread was first made but deleted it. Are they full to the brim? Do they hiss when you push them. Cycle the over and over a few times fast and see if they develop a noise (hiss sloshing noise's) If so start over. That is air in the shock. You want zero air in them. Close the cap at full compression, not half. You blow off caps. Also do your RPM arms bind at all? Make sure the suspension has no resistance w/o the shock on it.
 
ScooterB said:
Sorry Tee But this is not correct and is the biggest reason for blown shocks.
All shocks must have air to compress as the shaft is pushed into the body because oil will not. Gases compress. Fluids do not.
Your shocks should only rebound slightly on their own. If they rebound 3/4 they are overfilled
Big bores come with a bladder (Which all good shocks should) that seperates the air from the oil. Air mixing into the oil is bad because it will create bubbles which will compress as they pass through the shock piston orifices. when the bubbles compress it reduces the viscosity of the oil and the effectiveness of the shock.

Shocks should easily compress fully and rebound slightly.
Click to expand...
The only air in the shock should be in the bladder to cap. Bladder should be in the cap during assembly. Not on the shock then capped. The upgrade alloy caps have bleeder holes too makes this easy. Shock should be full to the brim when fully compressed. Also w/o the spring they should not rebound at all. not even a little.
 
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I did mine at half and checked them to make sure they compress fully. I get a slight rebound when released and they work great.

I agree with Bank though Don't overfill!:resp:
 
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