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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Shock Absorber Oil/Fluid

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Shock Absorber Oil/Fluid -- page: 1 2 3     ford38v8 08-13-2011 @ 12:30 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 2758 Joined: Oct 2009 Dolman, in all my experience, I have never cleaned castor oil. On the other hand, castor oil has cleaned me on several occasions. Alan Dolman 08-12-2011 @ 5:43 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 177 Joined: Dec 2010 When I was a kid spending all of my lawn mowing and apple picking proceeds on model airplanes, castor oil kept the 2 cycle engines from seizing, but it sure made a mess on the fuselages. Wish I could remember what we used to clean it off or maybe we didn't try. Stroker 08-12-2011 @ 5:19 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 Dolman: Since we seem to be going off on "tangents", let me add this personal observation: My dad had a 1960 Jaguar 3.8 litre Mark II Sedan. A rather interesting little car that had lines that would suggest "early Ford" to most. We serviced this little gem at home, since we had a service pit, air-operated grease guns, and several other amenities that were in place to provide maintenance to our large inventory of equipment, including lots-O-early Fords. The little "Jag-U-Are", had a Laycock-de-Normanville overdrive behind it's 4-speed trans. The official service manual called for pure castor oil. Being So-Cal ranchers, we figured that you could substitute any decent gear oil when servicing. Wrong! The overdrive wouldn't work unless it was fed a diet of pure castor oil. I'm not smart enough to explain why, but draining the mineral oil, and substituting pure castor solved the recalcitrant shifting. My generation grew up with methanol-burning caster-lubed motors that provided many spectators with smells that they can recall from their youth. Castor oil has properties that while I can't explain, were essential to early racing/hot-rodding, endevours. Wonderful stuff! Dolman 08-12-2011 @ 4:14 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 177 Joined: Dec 2010 Too early in my time zone. Have to sweat it out for another 1.75 hours. MG 08-12-2011 @ 4:00 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1254 Joined: Nov 2009 Have another toddy...... Dolman 08-12-2011 @ 3:42 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 177 Joined: Dec 2010 Test Results: If I had added some chopped garlic, I would have produced an Italian salad dressing with extraordinary laxative properties. In other words, castor oil is not miscible with the 95% water in a bottle of vinegar. Dolman 08-12-2011 @ 3:32 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 177 Joined: Dec 2010 MG, I have about a half a bottle of castor oil left. I'll stir in some vinegar, see what happens and let you know. Probably nothing because vinegar is diluted. Dolman 08-12-2011 @ 3:26 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 177 Joined: Dec 2010 My "Royal Taster" quit for a higher paying job so I was not able to test for similarity in the flavors of the old and new fluids. To confirm your comment about getting darker with age, I did see that the sample of the old fluid was several shades darker (Sounds like a teeth whitener commercial) than the fresh castor oil. I also agree that because of the small orifices the fluid passes through, complete removal of the the old fluid would take more time than I have left. I just poured out the stuff that was in there before re-filling. MG 08-12-2011 @ 11:47 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1254 Joined: Nov 2009 jerry, I have some shocks where the castor oil has dried into a black tar like substance. Is there anything I can do to to get this out of the shock or to make it liquid again? jerry.grayson 08-12-2011 @ 11:18 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 128 Joined: Oct 2009 Do not use hydraulic jack oil!!! Do not use "shock Fluid" as sold by many!!! The chance that your shocks used castor oil is high. If you remember your mother giving you castor oil as a child, you can taste your oil and you will recogonize it at once! Denatured alcohol will not be a solvent for castor oil. Acetic acid glacial is the only solvent that I know of for castor oil, but you will not be succesful trying to flush out your shocks with anything. I think that you have made the correct choice with the refill with castor oil. Castor oil get pretty dark and thick with age in the shocks.

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