Air bump work
For the those that aren't familiar with an air bump.
They are a real short air shock of sorts. They have compression and rebound valving just like a shock and then they have a spring rate of sorts that is controlled by the pressure charge applied to them.
The recomendation that King gave us was to cut the travel down to 2" on them as a 2.5" air bump is large for a 4500# vehicle. Then change the compression valving to # 12 stacks.
The stroke is easy to change as you just add 1" spacers as needed over the shaft.
The three AL. pieces on the shaft are the spacers. There is one in place all of the time we added the other two to reduce the bump stop travel to two inches. The rest of the items visible are the bump strike pad on the right then the seal gland and it's retainer, then the spacers, then the actual business end of the bump stop where the valving and piston are located.
This view shows the head of the shaft with all of the valving removed. It was at this point that we slipped the two 1" spacers on as seen in the last pic.
This view shows the fully assembled valving and piston. Starting at the bottom is a large washer that I have no idea what it does. There is a small spacer that goes on top of that then the compression valving stack slides on, the piston goes on then the Rebound valving on top of that. Last thing to go an is another longer spacer then the nut that holds all of that stuff tight.
This top view shows the rebound valving sitting on top of the flow piston. The piston has a oil seal on it that makes all of the oil in the shock/bump go through the piston and by the valving.
The valving is just a stack of washers that are a set thickness and Diameter. I think these were .010". You can do all kinds of things with the diameter of the washers, adding small washers in between large washers etc. I am not going to get into all of the specifics as I don't fully understand them to the point that I can explain it but there are limitless possibilities with the valving. The compression valving is the same type of setup.
Completed air bump with 2" stroke, ready to be filled with 150mL of shock oil, installed and charged with 50lbs. of Nitrogen.
A rebuild able shock like my Kings are identical to this just the shaft is smaller and the flow piston looks a bit different otherwise same thing.
Valving by each of the shock makers is called out differently so where King my call for .012" valving Fox would call for #50 valving. There is not a chart that correlates this info to have a cross reference guide that is open to the average guy like us that I know of.
For the those that aren't familiar with an air bump.
They are a real short air shock of sorts. They have compression and rebound valving just like a shock and then they have a spring rate of sorts that is controlled by the pressure charge applied to them.
The recomendation that King gave us was to cut the travel down to 2" on them as a 2.5" air bump is large for a 4500# vehicle. Then change the compression valving to # 12 stacks.
The stroke is easy to change as you just add 1" spacers as needed over the shaft.
The three AL. pieces on the shaft are the spacers. There is one in place all of the time we added the other two to reduce the bump stop travel to two inches. The rest of the items visible are the bump strike pad on the right then the seal gland and it's retainer, then the spacers, then the actual business end of the bump stop where the valving and piston are located.
This view shows the head of the shaft with all of the valving removed. It was at this point that we slipped the two 1" spacers on as seen in the last pic.
This view shows the fully assembled valving and piston. Starting at the bottom is a large washer that I have no idea what it does. There is a small spacer that goes on top of that then the compression valving stack slides on, the piston goes on then the Rebound valving on top of that. Last thing to go an is another longer spacer then the nut that holds all of that stuff tight.
This top view shows the rebound valving sitting on top of the flow piston. The piston has a oil seal on it that makes all of the oil in the shock/bump go through the piston and by the valving.
The valving is just a stack of washers that are a set thickness and Diameter. I think these were .010". You can do all kinds of things with the diameter of the washers, adding small washers in between large washers etc. I am not going to get into all of the specifics as I don't fully understand them to the point that I can explain it but there are limitless possibilities with the valving. The compression valving is the same type of setup.
Completed air bump with 2" stroke, ready to be filled with 150mL of shock oil, installed and charged with 50lbs. of Nitrogen.
A rebuild able shock like my Kings are identical to this just the shaft is smaller and the flow piston looks a bit different otherwise same thing.
Valving by each of the shock makers is called out differently so where King my call for .012" valving Fox would call for #50 valving. There is not a chart that correlates this info to have a cross reference guide that is open to the average guy like us that I know of.
, since I will be getting the car ready for 8+ hours of the worst beating we can hand it and still make it live to cross the finish line.
we decided it was a good idea to tear both of the axles all of the way down and look at all of the bearings and ring and pinions etc. There were a few of the drive slug spacers in the front that had changed shapes, the bottom of the rear dif had worn down enough to need a patch welded in to make the bottom bolt of the 14bolt actually have threads on the bottom side of the hole 
