AJS & Matchless Owners Club

lightweight shocks being as rare as the proverbial hens teeth got me thinking about possible solutions to this when rebuilding my M14 . It may be of interest to members to share the solution I came up with . Looking at the specs for the shocks the long length of the lower tube to clear the chainguard and the overall length got me thinking . Spring length of 8" is the same as alot of older girlings . I obtained a pair of shocks ( old frances barnett ) with the correct spring size for £10 off a well known on line auction with good damper rods .They even came withe correct mounting hole size . Cutting off the lower eye about a inch up carefull not to cut into the inner damper tube meant that turning a piece of steel in my old lathe to be a tight insert ( about 3/8 inch into the upper part of the shock and lower mounting eye) to the required length meant I could add the 3" I was short . The upper part had to be recessed to support the lower part of the inner tube damper tube as this is sprung loaded . The lower part where the eye mount was turned out mainly to lighten the extension piece .I left the wall of the extension piece about 3/32 thick .( about twice as thick as the original outer tube to giev plenty to weld to ) Once done the whole was mig welded together and welds dressed down . The shocks needed refilling through a drill hole which was then then welded shut. Total cost about 25 quid and look identical to the originals .Sorry about the size of the attached pics ,not sure how to shrink them down . Hope this may be of some use to the "shockingly" desparate ...

Good job! but most on here do not have access to a lathe or the know how to use it. Maybe you can offer your services to stricken L/W owners looking for replacement shocks??