Blowing out shocks on my 1978 Transporter

[SCVGuy]

My first bus returned to the road about 6 weeks ago after being rescued from sitting in the desert for almost 20 years. In that 6 weeks I
ve blown out 2 brand new kyb shocks on the rear passenger side and had a broken cv joint.

The engine was rebuilt by Bela in Burbank and runs like a dream. Also had new CV joints and boots put on because the old boots were shredded and the clip was broken on the rear pass side.

I'm not driving the car hard and the roads are pretty smooth here. When I do hit a bump in the road I;m hearing a clunking sound. Thought it was a loose back seat but checked that out and it was fine. I crawled underneath to see if anything was hanging loose or broken. Nothing that I could see.

I'm nervous about driving it and ruining another shock and cv joint or worse.

Any thoughts or ideas of what it might be?

THanks for helping out a newbie.
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[SCVGuy]

Here are a few pics of the car and the shock. The small pool of oil under the shock is from about 3 hours of sitting.

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[SCVGuy]

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[aeromech]

I've never heard of a shock "blowing out" like that. Are you sure that these are the correct shocks for your bus?

So, you replaced the CV's? Did you by chance buy rebuilt shafts with CV's from your local auto parts store? I've heard that some of them offer cheap replacements made in China.
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[aeromech]

BTW, great job on the pics and I have to say... that bus looks pretty nice after sitting fro 20 years.
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Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
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Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
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DC9/MD80
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[theizzardking]

yeah that is strange you over extended your shock, where you doing any 4wd'ing lately? for that to have happened you had to have had to go over something that would let the wheel droop to the point that the shock sleeved it's self, i don't know enough about how our buses limit travel to keep this from happening but it looks like to me that your cv's are too long and where the length of the cv would have stopped the wheel from dropping to far down as to stop this from happening. so as far as i can make out either your cv's are too long or your shocks to short, unless if i'm missing something like a sway bar in the suspension system...

i do alot of off road travel in various vehicles and have seen this sort of thing happen quit a bit to people who lift their trucks with new coils but neglect to put new longer shocks on with the coils, the first time they go over a curb or small stump there's a loud pop and their shocks gone......
do a search on here as i was reading that getting the proper length cv maybe harder then you think
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Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin
'71 westie "the wanderer"

[kreemoweet]

Neither of those two CVJ boots seems to be fitted properly. Are you sure
you have the correct axle installed? There were many different lengths, and
per Bentley manual, bus with manual transmission should have 476 mm axles.
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[SGKent]

I can't see the photos here but if the shocks are bottoming you are either too soft on the torsion bars, carrying too much weight or missing the snubbers (look like kong toys). If you are over-topping you are either too high in the torsion bar settings, have too weak/too short of shocks or are hitting bumps too hard. Most likely with blown shocks you better check all your motor and trans mounts. My bus had blown rear shocks and broken motor mounts when we bought it. It looked like a jack rabbit while it was being towed as the up bounces almost pulled the wheels off the ground.
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[Amskeptic]

Rear suspension looks adjusted too high. If the camber adjustment has then been tweaked towards negative, you are indeed over-extending the rear shocks on rebound bumps. You can test by simply jacking up the car under a frame member until the rear wheel is off the ground. If you can remove the upper shock bolt easily, it is not over-extended. But if you have to set the car down a little to release the upper bolt, it is over-extended. A shock will indeed blow itself apart pretty easily when you jack hammer the piston in the extension direction.

That intense driveshaft angle is definitely tough on CVs.

How about you set the spring plates back to a bona fida 23* and then make sure the camber at ride height is about 1/2-1* negative, then the Konis will be back in their operating range.
Colin
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[SCVGuy]

Thank you for all the input.

The shocks are new KYB ordered and installed locally.
I'll take a couple pics later and post which model to make sure i have the right ones.

The CVs are new Lobro's that were installed by Bela down at Bela's Foreign Car Service in Burbank. The axles are the originals that came with the car.

I've only put about 600 miles on the car since the engine rebuild and all have been local driving on fairly smooth roads. No off roading.

I am noticing a knocking sound every time I go over an uneven spot, bump, apron, on the road. It sounds to be coming from behind the passenger side of the rear seat. The spring stop on the frame and the rubber stopper for the suspension appear to be in good condition.

I thought it might be the bushing on the diagonal arm that attaches to the frame. It's a bit dried out but looks intact as well.

This is my first bus and I'm learning quite a bit and using the Bentley but this one is a bit beyond me. I wouldn't know where to start to reset the spring plates or adjust the camber. Is there anyone in the San Fernando Valley/Valencia/Los Angeles area that can recommend somewhere I can take it to have it looked at that is reputable and affordable?

Thank you again for your help and insight.

[theizzardking]

i said off roading to try and demonstrate how your shock over extended like that, what people don't realize most of the time is suspension works both ways, the shocks don't just compress to absorb bumps in teh road they also extend to keep your tires on the ground and in good contact with the road, bump stops usually limit your upward travel to stop you from over compressing them and there are various ways of limiting downward travel, i do not know how our buses do this without crawling under mine and having a look, but that's what you need to find out and replace or repair.

basically in simple terms and as far as i know you have too much downward travel happening, i can't say why or or how, but that's def whats going on if your popping shocks like that.
_________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin
'71 westie "the wanderer"

[SCVGuy]

Here a couple of pics of the shocks and the stop on the frame for the spring plate. Just to make sure the right ones were put on.

Thanks!

[aeromech]

I'm no auto parts store. I assume where and when you bought them somebody looked up the application.
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[raygreenwood]

The stock KYB gas-a-jsut listed for your vehicle is KYB 554060.

The KYB Gas-a-just KG 5530 is listed as increased handling and performance. So that is an uprated shock...but is listed for your vehicle. Have others used this shock in this application? Ray

[fusername]

super easy to check if you have a shock that doesnt fit. jack that corner up off the ground bythe frame, so the wheel droops all the way. now remove the lower shock bolt. the shock should go down a littel bit more. if when you remove the shock bolt the WHEEL goes down a bit more, there's your problem!

compression is harder becasue it is so hard to compress those shocks, but really a call to KYB with that part number should give you extended and compressed lengths. The thing is, without pulling the torsion bars there is no good way to compress your rear suspension all the way, belive me I have tried.

I am going to blame bad parts, not your bus for most of these failure, I have run EMPI (vomit emoticon!) bus CV joints at much larger angles than that for ~2k and had no failure, but they did click hard around corners after a few weeks. it was all due to a case of mistaken identity, I put in the wrong parts!
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[SGKent]

KG5530 is 22.2 extended and 13.74 compressed 8.46 stroke
344045 is 21.97 extended and 13.11 compressed 8.86 stroke
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