Help me rebuild my old coilover struts

Hi all,

Long time member, not so frequent poster. I think my last was probably 5 or 6 years ago. About the last time I got to do something fun with the vehicles as opposed to maintenance... Sigh. This is maintenance, but at least sort of fun. I think.

So, my problem is:

1. I have a front strut that has leaked most of its fluid out. I have never rebuilt struts before. I do however have the leaky one completely apart, so I at least have a better understanding of it now.
2. The brand of strut (Freedom Design) hasn't been made for probably 15 years, although I think they might be based on a twin tube Koni design. I assume they were probably made for them by a bigger company (Koni?) or simply rebranded with minor changes. They are single adjustable on the top.
3. At a minimum, I need at least one wiper oil seal, and some sort of nylon (?) spacer/bushing that was destroyed either from wear or by my disassembly (it came out in pieces). I have looked at hundreds of webpages and images to try and find a least the same profile of seal, much less the correct size, and nobody seems to have such an animal. Assuming I can get one seal that works, I'll probably rebuild the rest as well. I have no idea about the spacer, other than guessing from images I've found online, or if I end up rebuilding the rest of the struts, hopefully I'll get one out intact that will at least give me dimensions to work with.
4. Since this one leaked all the fluid out, and I have no idea what the original specs might have been, I have no idea how much to put back in, or what fluid to use. I know some use fork oil, some ATF, others light motor oil. I don't really want to experiment, as I just don't have the time to try different fluids to compare. Obviously if I want it to react the same as the rest of the struts, I should swap the fluid in all of them too, and I will if I can determine the leaky strut can be rebuilt successfully.
5. If it makes any difference to figure out what the right specs are for it, the struts are from a mk2/mk3 VW GTI.

Here's a couple pics of the seal and inner tube top that it sits in.

Any info or leads are greatly appreciated!

(Waves to any E.A.R. members that are still around! )

Thanks!

Was surprised nobody had any input, but poor timing on my part. Didn't realize the challenge was happening this week.

Just a quick bump to see if anyone can help. TIA!

Good luck to all $2016 challengers!

You might want to look into motorcycle shock seal head kits. 19mm is big but some shocks i know are 18mm

Unfortunately, I can't help with the parts.

This weekend might be a tough time to get a response for sure. I'd bump it again Monday and Tuesday mornings.

CRASH!!!!!

44Dwarf wrote: You might want to look into motorcycle shock seal head kits. 19mm is big but some shocks i know are 18mm

Funny you should mention it, that's the only type of shock/strut I can find that uses this weird stepped seal.

The strut shaft is 20mm, the lower OD with the spring is 28mm, the middle OD (which has what seems to be a steel washer embedded) is 35mm, and the upper OD which is a wiper is ~19.5mm.

I haven't disassembled another strut yet, so I'm still not sure about the spacer, but based on my assumption so far, it's 26.5mm ID, 28mm OD, and 6mm thick.

Do you know of any supplier that would have seals listed by dimension rather than specific application? I haven't had the best luck searching in google purely by size.

AngryCorvair wrote: CRASH!!!!!

ANGRY!!!!!

Good to see you here! Hope you're doing well!

In reply to Crash:

You could contact these folks:

http://shock-shop.com/

QA1 has a list of authorized rebuilders on their website: http://www.qa1.net/technical-support/authorized-rebuilders While this list is for places that rebuild their shocks, maybe some of those places also have resources for rebuilding other brands like yours. It may be worth a shot contacting some of them.

You might try a shop that deals in hydraulic cylinder rebuild parts. Are there any numbers on the seal?