Knee-Action Shocks- Work Best with Fluid!

Posted by Daniel Leininger On 2008/6/16 6:27:11

Shocking Discovery from a new Packard Geek!

As a new immigrant to Packard land, I have made a discovery that most of you will laugh at!

Having ZERO experience with knee action shock absorbers, I thought the front shocks on my 41 Clipper were, well, SHOT! Since the car had not been driven for 20 years, I figured that was the way it was till I got new ones.

So I bounced down the road (literally) for almost 1000 miles, looking at parts suppliers and expecting to spend $300 to $500 on replace/rebuilt front shocks.

My Packard Shop Manual said to service the front shocks with 'shock absorber fluid' (a magic potion of mineral oils that no one will divulge the formula for). I have seen quarts of it on eBay for $30 plus s&h. ugh!

Anyhow, I read an old MoToRs Repair Manual from 1950 and it described a half dozen or more types of knee action shocks. A Delco double-acting model looked like my Clipper setup. The manual showed where the filler plug was. Such basic Packard Info is very useful to us inexperienced Packard Geeks on the desolate Northern Great Plains of the Dakotas.

After Googling several "shock-absorber-fluid,-what-is-it" discussions on various Old Car sites, Dick Benjamin recommended 'hydralic jack oil' as a modern day substitute. So I took a quart of it that had been on my garage shelf for the last 1000 miles of my Clipper bouncin' down the road AND I proceeded to fill the shocks with hyrdalic oil.

I took off the filler plug, put a 2 ft piece of clear aquarium air tubing on the filler tip of my oil can, and started working the fluid in. At first the car would bounce as I rocked it up and down and the new fluid worked its way into the reservior and into the piston, valves of the shock. As the reservior would empty it would make that satisfing sound of sucking the bottom of your chocolate malt cup with a straw. Then I would start fillin and rockin again several times until the shock came back to life.

As I continued filling, the car go harder and harder to bounce up and down, till I was putting most of my body weight on the fender (fender pad in place). When I filled the reservior the last two times, the 'malt cup' sounds had stopped (I think It got enuf). The shock actually worked as over-designed by those wonderful old engineers of which we all are the proud beneficiaries.

CONCLUSION: KNEE-ACTION SHOCK ABSORBERS WORK BETTER WITH FLUID THAN WITHOUT FLUID.

Now as I glide down the road (including the roughest stretch of local street construction I could find) I am experiencing that great Packard Ride I heard so much about from others. I think it is one of those "Ask the man who owns one" moments.

Total Cost:
Enjoyable Time (minus dropping the filler plug in the frame)
Plus 79 cents of fluid.

ANY OTHER SHOCKING EXPERIENCES OUT THERE?

Dan'L