How do I disassemble a 68 Cobra rear shock?

frappy · Post by **frappy** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:52 pm

Has anyone ever successfully disassembled a 68 Cobra rear shock? I've tried a shock compressor and everything obvious, but had no luck so far getting it to budge. We want to disassemble for paint. Guidance and advice would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:49 am

Dane if they are like most shocks of that era you need to pull the upper cover down just enough to see how the top eye is kept on to the shock shaft.
Some use a thin nut up against the top eye, if you can see this nut by moving the top cover down about an inch, slip a spanner onto the nut flats and then turn the top eye.
Once the top eye is off the rest of the covers slide out easily.

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:24 pm

That's if the engineers decided NOT to pin the top eye casting to the rod with a nice little spring pin in a blind hole.

Sometimes they HAVE been known to use the lock nut AND the spring pin on the same shock. Wankers.....!!! Grrrr.....

frappy · Post by **frappy** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:47 pm

Suzsmokeyallan wrote:Dane if they are like most shocks of that era you need to pull the upper cover down just enough to see how the top eye is kept on to the shock shaft. Some use a thin nut up against the top eye, if you can see this nut by moving the top cover down about an inch, slip a spanner onto the nut flats and then turn the top eye.Once the top eye is off the rest of the covers slide out easily.

Allan,
We tried to "pull down" the upper cover with a shock compressor and it didn't budge. Could it be that the cover is somehow stuck? The shock isn't rusty crusty, and we put a lot of compression on it - so we didn't think it could be that stuck! Maybe we should try the same procedure on the other shock?

H2RICK wrote:That's if the engineers decided NOT to pin the top eye casting to the rod with a nice little spring pin in a blind hole. Sometimes they HAVE been known to use the lock nut AND the spring pin on the same shock. Wankers.....!!! Grrrr.....d it didn't budge.

Rick,
Where should I look for that blind hole and spring pin?

Thanks - Dane

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:14 am

Dane can the upper cover rotate on the body free of the upper eye, if so you may have some other issue there stopping it from moving down. Remember you have to hold the upper eye up as the top cover is moving down to see the space for the nut, just rechecking your actions here, not saying you didnt do this already.
The little roll pin Rick speaks of would usually be driven into the side of the top eye just in the wide part between the rubber and the top cap. Since its a small hollow roll pin they can usually be snapped off if you give it an initial quick twist.
These hardened roll pins are annoying to remove when in place and assembled, and drilling them out usually makes the aluminum of the upper eye get a bit damaged as they break up in pieces and can break drill bits too.

diamondj · Post by **diamondj** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:02 am

Dane,

I managed to disassemble a Cobra shock a while back and will post photos of the shock parts for you today sometime. The aluminum eye on the painted end of the shock just screws off and is not pinned. The reason you're having trouble getting the shock compressed is the painted end is ALSO threaded onto the damper rod.

Jim

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:33 am

AHHHHHHH good thing Jim, thats why i asked if he could turn the top cover freely. Thats interesting they would actually make the top cover threaded so it tightens onto the top eye.

GT Tim · Post by **GT Tim** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:34 am

diamondj wrote:Dane,

I managed to disassemble a Cobra shock a while back and will post photos of the shock parts for you today sometime. The aluminum eye on the painted end of the shock just screws off and is not pinned. The reason you're having trouble getting the shock compressed is the painted end is ALSO threaded onto the damper rod.

Jim

That's the way mine were but I didn't chime in since I didn't know if they were all that way.

diamondj · Post by **diamondj** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:47 pm

Okay, here's my set of very rusty Cobra shocks. Spending three or four Canadian winters outside can be bad for chrome plate apparently. I wound up shearing the retaining pins off the end of the damper getting mine apart so hopefully your experience will be better:

diamondj · Post by **diamondj** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:49 pm

Here's a close-up of the threaded outer shroud:

and the shroud next to the aluminum shock eye/retainer:

diamondj · Post by **diamondj** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:51 pm

This is the damper assembly. Because it's located inside the shrouds, it's smaller than the usual motorcycle shock damper. The barrel is 30mm in diameter and the shaft is 10mm in diameter:

At the time I disassembled this shock, I checked around and nobody could duplicate it. That was a few years ago so maybe works has something now that would do the trick?

diamondj · Post by **diamondj** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:56 pm

Finally, since my shocks seem to be beyond restoring I picked up a set of Hagons with chrome shrouds. They have normal sized dampers and I will eventually take them apart to paint the one end. They are not a perfect replacement but my bike is not a concours level restoration, I'm not worried about it:

Hope this helps and I can post larger versions of these pictures if you need them.

Jim

frappy · Post by **frappy** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:13 pm

Jim,
Thanks for the tips and pics. Nice of you to take pics when disassembling those shocks. I never seem to remember to take pics when I'm disassembling something. It's only after I got it apart that I think, boy it would've helped someone to have pics of what I just did!

Anyway, I'll take this info over to my friends soon and we'll try it on his shocks and let you know how everything works out. I doubt he wants to replace the innards, so we probably won't be looking to replace the damper - but who knows? If we do, and find a replacement source, I'll let y'all know.

I appreciate you and everyone else taking the time to post and comment on my question.
Regards - Dane

Bloop2 · Post by **Bloop2** » Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:03 am

Reviving this post as I'm trying to do the same thing, nice pics Jim and explanation on how to take these apart. How does the aluminum eye unscrew from the damper rod? My aluminum eye just spins the damper rod. Where are the retaining pins? My shroud and aluminum eye turn together at the same time, do they have to be loosened against each other by turning them in the opposite directions?

Thanks!

Bloop2 · Post by **Bloop2** » Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:11 pm

Gotter done, put a tight rubber condom on the shroud made from an old inner tube to protect the metal and used a "large" pipe wrench to turn the shroud counterclockwise down on the damper rod. The aluminum eye came off easily and so did the shroud.

Great info here Jim, saved my bacon.

How do I disassemble a 68 Cobra rear shock?

How do I disassemble a 68 Cobra rear shock?

Re: How do I disassemble a 68 Cobra rear shock?

Re: How do I disassemble a 68 Cobra rear shock?