Reply To: Houdaille Shock Rebuilding

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Hi Bill:

Here is my 2 cents worth:

I have not used M&S. I had the front ones of the ’29 done by a company I don’t recall (the shocks started leaking almost immediately), so I sent the rears to Apple. The rears would barely move. I was satisfied with their previous rebuild of my MGA shocks. I’ve heard some complaints about Apple, but my experiences with them were good. Apple phoned and indicated that the shocks were too far gone to repair, but they had a stock of NOS Dodge military truck shocks that were identical for the same price of a rebuild. I was a bit skeptical, but I said OK. They said that I could return them if I was dissatisfied. The shocks came painted in military olive paint and seem to work fine. This was about 6 years ago and they are not leaking (yet). There was a good article about Houdailles (I’ll try to find it) that I read a few years ago. Apparently the shaft bushing was designed to weep a bit to keep it lubricated.