Stellar shocks

#1
Ok since I removed the rear shocks to paint the Black Beauty I notice one is compressed more than the other and they obviously are stuck. Like everything else so far. I'm pretty sure this bike was dredged from the bottom of a lake. Anyways...Has anyone ever taken them apart? And, more importantly, how do I do this? I'd like to keep em original. Johnny Tillotson's keepin' it real. When possible.

Thanks!
 

capguncowboy

Well-Known Member
#2
Those look a lot like the shocks used on my ARCO. They just unscrew -- the spring holds them together. One of mine came apart with a little bit of force, but the other required soaking a few days, then heat, then torque.

It's funny you said you think it was dredged from the bottom of a lake. I thought the exact same thing about my ARCO. It had rust in places that it shouldn't have just from sitting out in the rain for 40 or so years.



I ended up just painting them since they were pretty pitted. They looked great afterward though.

 
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trinik7597

Active Member
#3
yup just like arctic cat fork springs should spin apart with some force :thumbsup: bet you are sayin i should have left this one where i found it :laugh: or sold it to someone :wink:
 
#4
Those look a lot like the shocks used on my ARCO. They just unscrew -- the spring holds them together. One of mine came apart with a little bit of force, but the other required soaking a few days, then heat, then torque.

It's funny you said you think it was dredged from the bottom of a lake. I thought the exact same thing about my ARCO. It had rust in places that it shouldn't have just from sitting out in the rain for 40 or so years.



I ended up just painting them since they were pretty pitted. They looked great afterward though.

Haha thats pretty rust too. Or was. Those shocks came out great. So where are the threads if I want to heat it up? At A or B?
 
#5
yup just like arctic cat fork springs should spin apart with some force :thumbsup: bet you are sayin i should have left this one where i found it :laugh: or sold it to someone :wink:
Now who would have wanted it?? Heehee. Nah im glad I got it. It just makes the before and after pics all that much better.
 

trinik7597

Active Member
#6
there are no threads in a convetional sense . the springs are essentialy the threads or the bolt and the cup is the nut if that makes any sense !
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#7
the tabs that are on the cups that the springs sit in are what hold them all together, I thought I had a shot of these Arco's I recently redid and sold apart but I didn't. You can see the tabs pretty good though in this shot:



the spring has to be unscrewed out of those "cups" they have a tendency to stick either if the spring is wound tight into the cup or as they get to the end fo the spring if they are springs that are pinched closed at the ends. gotta get physical with them sometimes, prying the closed coil can help too to feed to through the tab.


only shot of some loose springs I could find quickly in my photos but look at the top and bottom of them and you can see how the coil pinches together:
 
#8
there are no threads in a convetional sense . the springs are essentialy the threads or the bolt and the cup is the nut if that makes any sense !
Yeah that makes sense. So what is rusted shut is not threads but simply metal to metal where the small tube went into the larger tube. That's good cuz I'm really really good at stripping threads. So what I was thinking either way was putting one end in a vise and, say, an adjustable wrench with a pipe on the handle and turning it till there's movement. Now I could turn either way to get some movement. Then turn it counter clockwise until the tab in no longer over spring then pull up, no?
 
#9
Thanks Markus. I don't think these springs were pinched down on themselves at the ends. I'll see if I have any pics since I'm at work. Hopefully not. Great pic. Did those bolt together? Looks like threads on the bottom of the pipe on the pieces on the right.
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#10
yes the 2nd pic are Sebac shocks they are bolted together. your shocks are built just like external spring forks, Most of them are pinched end springs, Thos arco's I redid were not though.....they were a cakewalk to redo :thumbsup:

clamp one of the flat ends in a vise just like you were thinking and get to twisting!
 
#11
yes the 2nd pic are Sebac shocks they are bolted together. your shocks are built just like external spring forks, Most of them are pinched end springs, Thos arco's I redid were not though.....they were a cakewalk to redo :thumbsup:

clamp one of the flat ends in a vise just like you were thinking and get to twisting!
Ok cool. Thanks Markus! Been soaking a few days. Hopefully they pop easy enough. Thinking about it now, the dang things couldn't work as shocks if there were threads at those points anyway. I think I'm still high on Duplicolor fumes. I'm coming to now...
 

capguncowboy

Well-Known Member
#12
Here's a pic of what they look like disassembled. I forgot I had this one. It's not really a good angle on the strut portions, and the spring pic is blurry:


 

capguncowboy

Well-Known Member
#15
They're hosted through dropbox.com -- if the domain is banned through your work, they won't show. shoot me a PM with your number and I'll text them to you
 
#16
They're hosted through dropbox.com -- if the domain is banned through your work, they won't show. shoot me a PM with your number and I'll text them to you
Thanks Capgun, but no need...im home now and see em. Nice stuff. I gave it a few tries but didnt want to break em. They are stuck damn good, like the brake. Im gonna bring em to the same guy who freed that up. Plus it gives me a chance to pick through his engine pile while there. Heh heh
 
#20
Of course I had to pick up this rust bucket while there. Great S style muffler and vintage clutch though. Frozen. Shot half a can of PB blaster in the spark plug hole. Haha I dont have high hopes.
 
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