Okay, got some older Koni sports that were lying
around (in struts) for who knows how long. In
checking them out, I found that there is no oil in
either of them.

Now it was not difficult to open one, put in oil
(hydraulic fluid), and see it damp right again.
Question is, are these supposed to be totally
sealed? I didn't see anything like that. If you
store them upside down will they empty?
Anybody got an exploded view of the innards?

Thanks,

try here. there's a link to Koni's site in that thread too...

Thanks, I hadn't seen that area of the site before.
Have to look closely at the diagrams.

Are you talking about there being zero oil inside the shock absorber itself, or none in the strut between the shock and the tube of the strut?

In the latter case, the shocks may be just fine. The oil (or antifreeze in some cases) is there notionally to help heat transfer from the shock to the outside air. Not critical; many people skip this.

If you opened up the insert itself (the shock), umm... I don't really know how you'd do that!

--DD

QUOTE (Dave_Darling @ Feb 16 2005, 06:30 PM)

Are you talking about there being zero oil inside the shock absorber itself, or none in the strut between the shock and the tube of the strut? ... --DD

Sorry it's tough to be clear unless I'm talking in
binary 0010100011

I took the shocks out of the struts (boge, it
appears), and the rod moves with very low
resistance. Unrelated, the giant nut for the
strut is super-stuck on the shock, now out of
strut.

So, bang on the nut a few times around the
edges, and nut plus whatchamacallit comes
off. There is no seal or o-ring on it, I can take
a pic. _No_ oil inside. Since the other one is
the same feel and weighs the same, I assume
both are empty. That couldn't be leakage.
Or strut would be full of oil.

okay - so - Boke, not Koni, they were probably black, early ball-joint struts, yes ?

*original* 914.6 struts.

these ran with *no* inserts - the outer tube *was* the monotube, and the damper piston and seals ran directly in (smelly) oil in the strut tube.

my cars had that too.

get some good inserts, add a bit of oil to the tue for heat transfer (unless yours have cracks, which would be where the original oil went...) and you'll be good to go. although if you suspects cracking, a Magnaflux might be in order ...

He bought these...

more

I dont have a pic of the model numbers, but Mark can provide those...

they are on the side of the shock near the neck.

Rich