GAZ GHA disassembled

[ripp]

Ever wondered how a f**ed up GAZ looks inside?
I have a bikeshop (working on suspension forks raised some questions) and was dead curious how they are so after receiving my new set of coilies I took one front shock apart to see what's inside and found ... disaster!
Have to say that they gave up after almost 4 years of use and no refurb whatsoever.
But still.. to find rusty old damping fluid, rusty internals and chopped rods was a bit of a "wow I didn't expect that" thing.
My curiosity started when thinking why the Fox fork on my bike costs almost twice as much as GAZ coilies.. And found out why!
Firs of all the damping mechanism is really simple, and there is absolutely no stainless or another rust proof component used, apart from the shock rod. Sooo curious on how more expensive kits like the bilstein are made!...
There were two dampers on my car that leaked, and both had the rods damaged, suppose that was the cause for the water and debris getting inside, since the other two were in a much better condition.
Have to aske myself why don't they use damper covers like many other manufacturers? these would probably prevent the rods from being damaged. And why on earth don't they just paint the rear dampers like SPAX or Bilstein? you can see how badly coroded was mine in one of the pics.
My advice if you own GAZ:
Get them refurbed once a year or two and a set of coilover neoprene socks may be a good investment..

 

[Steven103]

Fair enough you've mentioned their age and lack of a refurb. However I'm sure you'd never let your MTB forks get in that state and expect them to last... I'm not saying everyone should clean their coilovers every time they wash their car but those do look as if you've done 100,000 miles upto the door handle in muddy water?

Pictures of internals? Would be very interested to see construction, shim stack, rebound system etc.

 

[ripp]

I will take it apart once again to get some decent photos. And yes I'm not leaving my fork in that state
But taking the coilovers off the car and sending them about 2000 miles away to get them refurbed by GAZ, then letting the car on stands for a month or more is not quite easy for me

 

[Steven103]

I will take it apart once again to get some decent photos. And yes I'm not leaving my fork in that state :smile:
But taking the coilovers off the car and sending them about 2000 miles away to get them refurbed by GAZ, then letting the car on stands for a month or more is not quite easy for me :smile:

Did you ever take any more pictures of the internals? Would be very interested in seeing what £500 of internals gets you.

 

[ripp]

I will get into this, just recently moved my shop to another location and that took me all of my spare time. But don't expect something extraordinary, they are built very rough, with cheap materials, no stainless steel or aluminium inside, except for the rods maybe (they look and should be stainless).
The fact is that I was pretty happy with them untill they gave up, and the service items look fairly cheap. Like I said, if you service them once a year or so they are a decent kit after all.