Rebuilding the houdaille shocks

[Brentwood Bob]

I have now rebuilt over 40 shocks over the last several months. Mostly, I followed David McCleery's approach(How to Restore Your Model A, vol. 2.) and Les Andrews Red Book, pg 1-256.
Takes about half a day to get one open, a full day to complete the usable cores.
With some steps spread over several days.
Keeping all the parts together for each shock takes extra effort.
I have found various fluids have been used, some recognizable, some still unknown to me.
The attached pictures will show the disassembled shock.
I use 85-140 gear oil, neoprene seals, lead, ss ball bearings, stem packing, and sealant to rebuild the usable cores.
There is a learning curve, and this is an ambitious job. Finding a matching set is problematic, mostly I built Houdaille, and National Acme, the 2 main manufacturers. There is some luck involved finishing up with matching sets, in my experience.

[Brentwood Bob]

Here is a 2 completed set of shocks. You can see how they turned out

[J Franklin]

They look great!

[Brentwood Bob]

Work good too. Thanks.

[ModelAMitch]

Those look awesome, and I bet they look great installed too. Is the ride much improved with these? I currently have no shocks.

[Oldbluoval]

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Having done many in the past…..
It may be self evident but …
Don’t mix internal parts. Don’t try to swap out parts from one shock to another. Always build the whole shock as you get it. Covers and retaining rings MAY work sometimes but nothing else ….at least that’s what I’ve found worked for me

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by Oldbluoval

Having done many in the past…..
It may be self evident but …
Don’t mix internal parts. Don’t try to swap out parts from one shock to another. Always build the whole shock as you get it. Covers and retaining rings MAY work sometimes but nothing else ….at least that’s what I’ve found worked for me

Bill, it even addresses this very thing in the Service Bulletins and instructed the rebuilders to not mix components. Either these "instruments" (-Ford's Engineer's nomenclature!) were very precision involving hand-fitting the pieces, -or the factory just kept substituting parts until they got one to work and then told people not to intermix parts!

Kudos to Bob for being able to rebuild these, and thanks to him for sharing!! I have all of the tooling, and have tried to do several sets, -and I have just not had the success that Bob evidently has. So I am curious, how does one account for wear on the Flange Cover bore and the Wingshaft shaft and ends when rebuilding these?

Glycerin originally looked about like honey and I think was about the same viscosity as 50 wt. oil. I don't think Glycerin was all that lubricating to the shock's wear areas, and it also was very nasty about absorbing water as it wore the Wingshaft. That is why most of the ones I find have major wear internally.

I think on the ones I did, the clearances were not brought back to factory spec (-not really restored per se') and some of the more famous go-to shock rebuilders kinda have the same issue with theirs (-again, not really restored but just repaired) in that the replacement oil actually leaks past the rotor housing and the Wingshaft ends where it really doesn't create the same effect as what Ford and Houdaille intended them to have originally. They also leak ...period.

Again, kudos to those who have long-term success if making these fully functional again. For me, for the amount of time it takes to completely machine and restore these back to where everything is to factory specification takes more time to correctly do than it would take me to spend that same amount of time working at McDonalds to save up enough money to just purchase a brand new set that function exactly as they did when the Model-A was new! .

[Brentwood Bob]

Same experience and the referenced research bear out your advice.
Treat each shock as a unit.
Either it will successfully function after reworking, or it is too far gone.

[History]

Have you had any to fail after a complete rebuild? If so what’s the longest one worked before failure. How long is the life span after a rebuild? Thanks for the photos!

[Brentwood Bob]

In 2 months none have failed.
All depends on the condition of the shock. Out of 40 selected cores, 3 are very soft, only one is leaking from the cover threads, I can probably stop that.
I would expect these to be working when you hang up the keys.
These are pretty durable.
Pretty soon they will be a hundred years old.
I think a failure is a relative term. Now that I have opened them up, and reworked each one, it will be easier to fix them with even minimal maintenance.

[Brentwood Bob]

I rebuilt 4 that MIGHT have been Apple Rebuilds, they all had had major Surgury.
After I got the black substance out, and cleaned them up they went back together fine, although one had to have the inner cover reworked to make it right.
Untouched originals will be difficult to rebuild. But if they still function, or at least don't show excessive wear, and have fluid the odds of a good one are worth the work.

[rotorwrench]

Folks seldom do any scheduled form of maintenance on these old iron fluid dampers, They would likely last longer if a person took the time to change fluid in them and clean them up. It's not as easy as a person might think so a spare set would likely give plenty of time to get maintenance done like this but most folks don't think about it.

These were throw away items back in the era they were used. Houdaille manufactured a lot of them for the various manufacturers that used them and the price was a way lot better back then. The advent of the "aircraft style shock" in 1947 pretty well ended the use of the who-die style shocks. Only a few European companies used them much after that.

Bell Helicopters used a form of them on their stabilizer bar systems but most folks have converted to "no-bar kits" in the modern era. The stabilizer bars had a tendency to depart the aircraft and folks got tired of the daily inspections they had to perform on them.

[Oldbluoval]

This is BB’s thread
But I’ll chime in about leaks….
Even shocks with superb pressures are prone to leak. I’ve read that they leaked on the dealers floor when new! The cover and lock ring have an o-ring seal between them; I added non-hardening permatex. The needle adjuster had wick packing; I used neoprene or Teflon string (plumbers). I used neoprene seals where the shaft came thru the cover; seldom a problem area unless the shaft was scored or pitted.
Yes I still had some leakers. If I built them for fine point cars, I often was asked to put grease in with the understanding they would one day be filled before road use.

[Brentwood Bob]

at least with a leaker you know it has hydraulic oil.
100%, trouble free, guaranteed not to ever leak is unrealistic.
This part takes a lot of abuse. That's its job.
These are the original parts. I am very happy with my experience.

[rotorwrench]

They look pretty good to me. OEM is a good thing. Stipe shocks look like something made at a gun factory. I'd be afraid to use them for fear they would get scratched.

And yes I did mean GUN. They are too purty to put on.

[old31]

Rotor, i think you meant to say GUN factory. Not gum.

[JayJay]

I rebuilt four on my Town Sedan, and two of them leak badly. In hindsight I realize that the sealing surfaces on the shafts were corroded, and what I should have done was build the corroded surface up with weld and then turn them down again to smooth. Even new O-rings won't seal against a rough surface.

Project for another day...

JayJay

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by JayJay

I rebuilt four on my Town Sedan, and two of them leak badly. In hindsight I realize that the sealing surfaces on the shafts were corroded, and what I should have done was build the corroded surface up with weld and then turn them down again to smooth. Even new O-rings won't seal against a rough surface.

Project for another day...

JayJay

So, after sitting around on this for over a year, I finally decided to have Bob rebuild them for me. They turned out very nice. Haven't installed them yet but I have no doubts that they will perform well.

[Brentwood Bob]

Apple turned the shaft smooth and bushed the inner cover.
They also do major Surgury on the base. Must have good capabilities.

[poweredbylincoln]

He does great work on the shocks. They are very nice. I have them on my model a’s. I highly recommend him.