Rear Shock Absorbers.

[andrew34ruby]

Surely these are dampers - not "shock absorbers". Shock absorption is done by the tyre material, air in the tyre, flex in the wheels, the leaf springs and of course, on an Austin seven, by the chassis flexing. In a sense, I suppose the dampers do some "shock absorbing" by the rise in temperature of the friction disc - but surely their main function is to dampen oscillations of the springs?

Tony, I feel it matters not what something does, if it has a name we should use the name.

Possibly these things don't absorb shock, but that is what they are called.

[Howard Wright]

Hi

Agree with both of you….

The parts lists describe them as shock absorbers so I guess that is what Austin used.  However they are dampers in the mechanical sense!

Cheers

Howard

[cwchrisp]

From my perspective as a 'first timer' in the rear shock/damper repair field, I have tried to understand principles firstly from Woodrow and then apply limited mechanical knowledge on Austins, work out best approach, and of course trial and error!

Woodrow (Page K4) makes no mention of special pegged bolts for the link retaining bolt, in fact shows a hex shanked bolt, mentions the rubber bush nuts should be 'just nipped' onto the bushes and no mention of tightening centre bolt to near bottoming out on the spring plates, just to finally adjust after road testing.

The rubber bushes are termed in Woodrow 'universal from specialist suppliers', to cover the various changes to links over the years. This led me to assume, probably wrongly, that width might have changed and hence bushes might need some modification.

It has been a facinating insight for me as a 'junior' member ( I like that term at my age  ), to hear the various views on this probably quite important subject, as it either makes for a more relaxed drive if one gets it right or a rather frightening one

Cheers, Chris