Sway-A-Way RaceRunner Rebuild
I rebuilt my Sway-A-Way RaceRunner coilover shocks after having them on the truck for over 1 1/2 yrs and 25,000 miles. They were not leaking any oil, but I figured the oil was probably in pretty bad shape and I prefer preventitive maintenance rather than repairs. I also noticed the front of the truck seems to have a little less resistance to compression, so I thought maybe it might help that too. Now that the rebuild is done, I attribute the loss of resistance to coils that are fully broken-in. It is not as if the coils have "sagged" because I did not lose any lift or weight-carrying capacity, it's just that they seem to "give" more under a load. The difference is minimal though and they do a GREAT job on the trails :)
It was interesting and fun to finally see what everything looked like inside these beasts. Everything looked as great on the inside as they do on the outside. High quality parts, fit and finish. Some questions you might ask:
Was it a difficult job? No, not really, It was actually quite simple and now that I have figured it out it will be faster the next time.
How long did it take? It took me about 18 minutes per side to get the units removed and cleaned up. It took about one hour per side to do the rebuild (I had to do some trial and error. It should go faster for you with this write-up!) And it took about 15 minutes per side to re-install and adjust the coil on the truck. In total, it was about a 3 hour job.
How much did it cost? It wasn't cheap. The seal kits were $67.91 ($27.95 ea.) incl. shipping, the oil was $26.72 (2 quarts) incl. shipping, and the nitrogen recharge was $12.00. This is a grand total of $106.63. You will only need one quart to do the job, but if you spill any...
Where did you get the stuff? I got the seal kits from Camburg Engineering (who had to order them from Sway-A-Way), and I got the oil from Lee at RaceShock Co. Next time I will probably get the seal kits from Lee as well (closer to home for me). Sway-A-Way will not sell the seal kits directly to the customer. They must be purchased through a dealer. The oil is Torco brand, and I'm not sure which weight but it is red in color.
Camburg Engineering
Hunington Beach, CA
(714)848-8880
www.camburg.com
RaceShock Company
Phoenix, AZ
(602)493-3700
www.raceshock.com
on to The Rebuild