rubber thingies on the struts..........?

[Perle]

I am now mid process in my aspire brake conversion.
The rear beam is swapped and I am putting in new GR2 struts.

My old accordian rubber strut shock cover thingies are all tater'd.

My question is..........Do I really need them, or can I put my new struts in without them ????

Festy Sages....please enlighten me !!! :twisted:

[Safety Guy]

You're putting on new struts: I'd go with new covers. I think they help keep water and salt off your shiny steel pistons.

Here is a neat "offscale" idea:

http://rcbros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=779

I wonder if you could use mountain bike or moped tyre tubes like this? cut them long enough to squeeze over the top of the GR2 shock body and extend upwards loosely around the piston?

Actually, I think that idea (if it worked at all) would work best with good "accordianlike" covers.

If that idea fit, it could potentially have an adverse effect: Any water that got up in there would be pooled around the top of the shock body and sit there, in "corrosion mode." Might not be a good idea. Even if you sealed it off completely, I suppose moist air could condense inside the tubing and pool up over time. Not good.

Like I said, new shocks--use new shock covers. Protect your investment.

If you were just reinstalling your old shocks until you could afford better ones a few months down the road, then I'd say leaving them off would be fine.

But: "New shocks--new shock covers!" is what I say.

Let's see what others think.

Karl

[25Horseplay]

I believe FMS sells new strut covers.

[IdealSociety]

id get them, up here in mn we have alot of salt/crud on the roads during the winter and i shot my first pair of GR2's for not having a set of boots on them... the seals went all to heck and thankfully i had warranty on them and got them replaced...

you can buy ones for an aspire at Advanced Auto i know for sure... thats where i bouthg mine they should also work with a festiva strut as there is minimal differences...

[FB71]

they're only $20 a pop. Don't go cheap now and risk ruining the new KYBs

[Perle]

Dats what I figured. I am either going to harvest a set from my U-Pull-It or just order new ones.

Back when I used ride motorcycles the inner tube trick worked well.
The front of your fork tubes were exposed to road dust,rock,crap....and pits and chips in the fork tubes would grind away at your fork seals causing premature leaking and failure.

We would take an bicycle inner tube that was about 1/8" to big, zip tie it very neatly to the fork tube, it worked and since the bottom was open, moisture was not a problem.
Others might just get some extra accordion material from the Dirt Bike shop and put that one.

[FB71]

fork gators! ah, british bikes......