The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Lever shocks rebuild

I have read all the posts I can find and nowhere does anyone talk about or show how to remove the levers and replace the seals on the Delco Lovejoy single action shocks.I have seen everybody recommend various shock rebuilders services.Does anybody work on their own stuff anymore ? $150 to put a $2 seal in inspires me to figure out how to do this myself.Has anybody out there tried this or know how its done ?

The Filling Station sells a kit to rebuild those shocks, it probably has the instructions on how to do it.

dunfire,I checked their site and they do offer rebuild kits for my shocks.The seals in the pictures look like pushrod tube corks off my old shovelhead.They offer no info at least online about the rebuild process but will gladly do mine for $159 plus shipping each.

Put in on the bench and tear it apart...no rocket science here. The lever twists a cam that pushes a piston that dampens the movement. Not many moving parts.

Mike B

Mike, you make it sound so easy,share some of your science with us,how many have you rebuilt ? The problem is taking it apart without destroying parts.The parts are splined,pressed together, and peened or staked somehow and not intended to be taken apart.The original manuals say replace the shock if it leaks.I have not found anyone yet that has taken one apart without breaking the cast iron body.I'm not sure of the best method of dissasembly,remove the shaft out of the rocker or the lever from the shaft.

If you do go the rebuild route with an outside vendor, I highly recommend Apple Hydraulics in NY. They do those shocks for $135 each and have quick turn around.

There are some folks in Ca who did mine! Five points I think. Great work.

The only lever action shocks I've played with are from the mid-30's.

To reseal them I removed the cover, removed the bolt holding the cam to the shaft and then removed the shaft. There are only a hand full of pieces inside.

I'm not aware of how they were made in the 50's...I assumed they were the same, why reinvent the wheel.

Sorry if I made it sound to easy, but if you can have one rebuilt for $135, it can't be hard to do.

Take the cover off and tell us what you see...

Mike B

I'm thinking I can bolt the shock body to a piece of channel or angle using original mount bolts & holes and put it under the legs of my engine cherry picker and make a piece shaped like a "U" to go around the shaft under the shock arm with a strap over the arm.I will attach a chain to the strap and pull with the cherry picker.I have the cover plate off so I can apply some heat to the rocker arm using a torch to expand the rocker on the shaft. I dont care if i melt the seal I'm replacing it anyway.

I can press the parts back together "cold" after replacing the seal with a lip type seal.

Putting it back together should be the easy part . Anybody know what modern lip seal will work ? I'm not too excited about putting cork seals back after all the effort required to replace the seals.

The shocks I'm working on are on my 41 Chevy pu they are single acting type Delco-Lovejoy. There is no bolt,setscrew or pin holding the rocker on the shaft. They are pressed together and the lever is welded to the shaft upon assembly originally.

I got the shocks apart and rebuilt one of the rears using the original seal cover and a modern lip seal.I had to remove material from the height of the casting boss to fit the seal in.I pressed it together using green loctite on the seal cover to casting. I am going to make sleeves to replace the seal cover on the front shocks,to get a better seal to the casting.