Club 80-90 Forums

Help my head is spinning. I am after a full set of shocks for the van and want to go for the Old Man Emu shocks. I am not certain what is on mine at the moment. I know I have 2wd springs on the front. If I have 2wd springs am I likely to have 2wd shocks as well? If so why? I have looked on JK and the shocks look different.

Is there a length difference between the 14" and 16" OEM shocks or are the 16" shocks just a bit stiffer?

I believe the OME rear shocks I need are N37 does anyone know the code of the fronts?

Any of you mechanical wizards fancy doing a wiki piece on the options for uprating a syncros suspension? It is an area that has always confused me.

OE Syncro front shocks available from Brickwerks as well as longer AVO adjustable ones for the rear.
http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php?p ... t&Itemid=6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php?p ... t&Itemid=6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 14" and 16" rear shocks have different part numbers but not sure if that's for length or stiffness(oo err!)

14" Rears 251513031D
16" Rears 251513031N

Number for the fronts are N38S check prices before you buy, my rears cost £81.00 each. fronts were a lot more expensive at nearly £140 each plus carraige, that was 2 years ago and at the time had difficulty sourcing them, maybe easier now

rogerg-wagon wrote:and at the time had difficulty sourcing them, maybe easier now

Just a bit....
http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php?p ... 1&Itemid=6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am after the Old Man Emu shocks not the Original Equipment shocks.

They are supposed to be stiffer.

Ahhh i see.I thought you'd got mixed up with OE manufactured.

As you were.

The 14 and 16 shocks are identical on the outside, just that the 16 is stiffer to counter the heavier wheels. I believe I had the last set of those a while back.

Syncro shocks are specific and not 2wd interchangable.

I would go with Baxter, and know that you will get customer service. I dont know what the chances of resolving problems with an australian company would be.

Simon.

I've had OME's (front and rear) on my Kombi for a few years, and I don't think they're anything special. The stock ones seems very durable anyway. I did put a set of front VW HD's on my pickup and they were a very noticeable improvement to general control. I'm very interested in the adjustable ones Baxter is working on and will probably upgrade to those. If I were you I'd hold off until Baxters are available or consider the VW HD dampers.

On the Samba they did a survey of shocks, and the standard VW ones came out as lasting by far the longest of any of the other brands.

I've never thought that OME's were "all that", bit easier to fit as they are gas and you can get the nut on the top a bit easier, but that's about it for me.
Most durable - VW/Sachs/Boge << same thing deffo 100%
How many now are stick kicking about on their originals? loads!
The AVO's won't be as durable as the originals, I'll tell you that now.
If you want fit and forget, busy some Sachs ones.
Sachs and Boge are the same company, the dampers are made on the same line by the same people that made them for VW, they are OE in all except part number and price.
Others worth considering are the ones from Syncro Hospital in SA, they are made by Bilstein in SA to their specs, not used any personally but if the rest of the Bilstein stuff I sell is anything to go by they are deffo worth consideration.

Simon Baxter wrote:I've never thought that OME's were "all that", bit easier to fit as they are gas and you can get the nut on the top a bit easier,

Funny you should say that. I might be well wrong here but I thought that the OME's were like a gas strut making it easy to get it through the hole in the top of the suspension rather than getting a hollow tube and guiding it through like the normal ones. The OME ones Axeman just ordered and had fitted buy a chap didnt work like a gas strut and stayed compressed were you pushed them like normal ones Or is it me not understanding what i thought they were suppose to do

jed

indeed.

Well thank you all for making my life harder. Here I was thinking "get OMEs" supposed to be stiffer which is what I want. Now I don't know what to get .

Rob
dampers don't particularly stiffen it, that's the spring rate, if you're on 2wd springs you are on softer springs, genuine springs or same rate ones Simon sells with suitable lift kit to keep the height you've got with 2wd springs, will improve the ride, with factory dampers for me.
I had that SA van with the bilstein on and I prefer the factory dampers, the bilies were a bit slow for me sometimes, a bit stronger at the bottom though, more progressive I think is the description, only noticeable really at speed on undulating roads
Jed didn't Neil fit original dampers ie OE original equipment, not OME which is Old Man Emu which are the Australian yellow gas struts easier to fit
yellow ones look good on Davids truck with it's colour coordinated bash plate and wheels tho'

Aidan wrote: Jed didn't Neil fit original dampers ie OE original equipment, not OME which is Old Man Emu which are the Australian yellow gas struts easier to fit
yellow ones look good on Davids truck with it's colour coordinated bash plate and wheels tho'

No he went the full hog and bought the full lot from http://www.syncro-bernd-jaeger.de/ENGLI ... rwerk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for about £1100 inc springs I think someone with a landrover in surrey greenlanig type club was advising him if i remember right. Like i said the front shocks didnt fully extend like i would have expected (sure Jakes do but might be wrong) but are like the vw ones and will sit were you push them before you fit them if you see what i mean. Should gas shocks fully extend before fitted like a gas strut?

jed