Shock Absorbers

[MelH]

I built my Lomax 224 on a chassis supplied by the company 19 years ago and have just experienced the first mechanical failure. One of the bolts fitted adjacent to the spring canister holding a rear shock absorber in place sheared. Thinking the damper had seized I removed both the rear ones (they are unnamed) and was amazed to discover the huge forces needed to compress or extend them both. Not only that but they returned to their fully out position so either a gas or spring was being compressed within them. Thinking this was the norm, I decided to replace all 4 similar mounting bolts suspecting fatigue failure in the bolt. The front 2 shockers (one Lip-Alliquant, the other Dessous) were similar in characteristics to one another but totally different to the rear ones in that they were relatively easy to compress and extend but stayed in the position I had left them. The distance from wheel arm rotation to the damper mounting appears to be the same at the front and rear. Can anyone explain why the rear dampers should be like this when the rear of the car has little weight. Are these types the norm for a 2cv? Should the shockers all be the same? Should I replace the rear ones to give a smoother ride? Many thanks for any views.

[Geoff Ryall-Harvey]

Your shocks should not be like that. New ones are cheap - just replace them.