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40's front shocks - info required
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Terry Gaudet Premium Member
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 5:19 pm    Post subject: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

Hey everyone,

So I bought a bunch of early split stuff a couple of weeks ago and these were in one of the boxes. From what I can see from my search on this site, they are for mid-40's front T-1 beetle. Is this correct?


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Martin Southwell
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:30 pm    Post subject: Re: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

Correct - I've had a couple of these Hemscheidt shock absorbers for over 30 years, which I believe came off my spare 1947 Beetlle chassis, and have always thought it was an odd design, appearing as it does, to be best suited to a 45 degree mounting, whilst the Beetle, Kubel & Schwimmer front shocks are all vertically mounted on the vehicle.

This results in the top mounted reservoir, with its removable top, held in place by four screws, in the same manner as the standard rear VW lever shock absorber, to be on an angle, very much reducing the ability to fully fill the reservoir. Maybe this was a design advantage?

If you look today at Hemscheidt's website, http://www.hemscheidt.de/en/company/facts-and-figures/company-history/ it says;

1940 Begin of licensed shock absorber production for military vehicles (Zenz patent).

1947 Start of production of shock absorbers for VW, Borgward, Daimler Benz, Kreidler and others. Production volume of up to 100,000 shock absorbers per month.

Having these on the 47 therefore makes sense.

On the side opposite to where it says Hemscheidt, it says: BAUART ZENZ, then below it says KD41 62, and below that, a non cogged VW logo, indicating post war production. From what I understand, Bauart means Design Type, and so we have 'Design Type Zenz'.

Looking at the history above, it talks about a Zenz patent, for military vehicles. There is a company in Germany called Zenz, who look after engineering patents: http://www.zenz-ip.de/en/ Surely there is a connection? Does the KD41 62 mean patent 62 made during 1941, and does this relate to the odd design of the shock absorber?

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virtanen
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:04 pm    Post subject: Re: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

They are VW KD parts (Kunden Dienst), which mean VW developed them to replace the original earlier weaker design.

There was published an official note for the issue in June 1955, I don't have it myself to show.
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Terry Gaudet Premium Member
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:16 am    Post subject: Re: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

Wow, thank you both for the incredible information. Any idea on the value of these?
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1950 Beetle Standard
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1965 Kombi walkthrough
1965 Double Cab
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Martin Southwell
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:15 am    Post subject: Re: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

In my opinion, they are not worth much (But nothing surprises me any longer about VW prices & what people are after) as they are more novelty value. There can't be many people who would want to have these in the 1st place, and then go through the hassle of restoring them, when the 'normal' type are readily available. That's my humble view!
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MickeW
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:59 am    Post subject: Re: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

virtanen wrote:
They are VW KD parts (Kunden Dienst), which mean VW developed them to replace the original earlier weaker design.

There was published an official note for the issue in June 1955, I don't have it myself to show.


Nowadays that Berater is "in house" https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/berater_8.php

I also have one of these that came with my -46


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Martin Southwell
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 1:52 pm    Post subject: Re: 40's front shocks - info required Reply with quote

Interesting. Thanks for posting that. It seems that the 'normal' short telescopic shock absorber is single acting, and the type mentioned above, 'with ruck sack' as the VW blurb describes it, is double acting.

For those who aren't sure what this means, the single acting type, which I've always been led to believe is the desirable type to have on the front of any vehicle, means that for instance, when the front wheel hits an object, the wheel is allowed to move upwards quickly, in a controlled manner, with the shock absorber offering minimum resistance, so as to maintain directional stability, whilst allowing the wheel to come back down relatively slowly, using energy stored by the torsion leaves during the up stroke.

Double acting on the other hand, means that there is resistance within the shock absorber on the way up, and on the way down. This is usually associated with rear axle applications, where there is minimal influence on the steering, thereby maintaining the ability to stay in a straight line.

Is anybody aware of the reason why there should be a double acting shocker on the front?
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