DISCLAIMER: i am incredibly frustrated and angry.. so what comes next is aggressive but informative
Ok so i have been all over the internet looking for information on this frankly piece of **** company's flagship suspension system and any information on it.. and for some reason everyone on every forum is talking about the same old things, either its the clunk or how hard it is to adjust..
Honestly this is frustrating because its an issue that has been discussed to death.. WE KNOW ... THEY ******* CLUNK.. AND ARE HARD TO ADJUST..
just to answer a quick question everyone might be thinking.. "why not return it tlike we all do and wait months for replacements?"
answer: Greatt question.. 1 i dont have the luxury to wait months for replacements.. 2 im in a country where i cannot for political reasons import or export anything and if i try to leave with them in a suitcase they will either be taxed with their full price or taken completely because yes that's the country i live in... and you might be tempted to ask " dont you have an ARB dealership " .. Yes!.. Yes we do.. but they are completely useless and cannot do anything including importing proper inventory to sell.. i have no idea why they are actually a dealership..anyway
Now on to the actually important stuff.. how to rebuild them and the very least what to adjust in nitrogen pressure..
I have taken mine apart and rebuilt them and i am here to tell you all the information i have gathered.. Now.. the BP51s are FULLY serviceable and actually every single part in it is replaceable. i have recently blown the oil seals that are located under the Comp and Reb adjusters.. and thank god i had an older shock that was broken i use for spare parts.. that i decided to practice taking apart everything in before getting to work on the one on the car.. i will put photos of the tear down process.. and btw ARB will not sell you the oil seal rebuild kit.. because god knows why.. so just a piece of info that they probably wouldn't want you to know.. take apart the oil seals and go to any store that sells hydraulic oil seals and match them.. they will work just fine.. they dont want anyone else to rebuild them because they probably run RnD on all shocks that come back to them.
My rear left shock burst in 4 places as far as i can tell.. both sides of the reservoir hose and the compression and rebound adjusters stack.. now getting to those seemed impossible and i found NOTHING online because somehow its a more guarded secret than the nuclear codes.. BUT i found it and took it apart.. here are some pics..
So you take apart the shock as you would any other 2.5 shock.. then.. using the adjuster spanner that comes with the kit.. you rotate the compression adjuster all the way down then keep going as it will start rotating on its self like a bottle cap until it comes completely off.. there are 2 oil seals that are 2mm thick on tthe top of it and one also 2 mm i think or 3mm in the middle of the compression adjuster once taken off..
Then it would look like in the picture.... so to take apart the part where it shows the compression and rebound levels.. youll need a T10 hex screw set.. you will take off 4 screws that come up with shimlike spacers (2 on each screw). that twill then reveal a second layer of screws, same deal just take them out but becareful with the orientation of everythting going in and out because they have to align with the bypass tubes in a certain way.. here is a picture of the screwed ...
After taking both rows off. the whole thing comes out with the rebound adjuster that has 4 2mm oil seals 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom and as far as i can tell nothing in the middle... also here are simple pictures to understand the allignment
The 4 holes on top allign with the large bypass tube
and the 8 holes in the bottom allign with the small bypass hole..
I will still be working on the top part of the shock and reservoir hose ends..
Quick conclusion .. Honestly with the crap information around for these amazing shocks and the secrecy with treating the information on it by ARB and their refusal to give you any parts to fix it if you are in a part of the world that cannot deal with them in anyway.. and the dealers are pretty much useless when it comes to then even fixing it themselves.. i have to say that while i love them when they work.. i wouldnt with them on my worst enemy, i will be looking into selling them come summertime and buying a proper suspension system where dealing with it isnt literal rocket science and where i dont have to solve the davinci code just get to a part of it..
P.S: this shock was broken thats why i took it completely apart.. and btw they are charged to 250 PSI nitrogen incase anyone wants to test theirs.. i really think they can go down to 200 but ofcourse i cant be sure because NO ONE IS TELLING ANYTHING... i read on one forum it was 300.. but when i got the new one and tested it, it was 250 so there you go.
Ok so i have been all over the internet looking for information on this frankly piece of **** company's flagship suspension system and any information on it.. and for some reason everyone on every forum is talking about the same old things, either its the clunk or how hard it is to adjust..
Honestly this is frustrating because its an issue that has been discussed to death.. WE KNOW ... THEY ******* CLUNK.. AND ARE HARD TO ADJUST..
just to answer a quick question everyone might be thinking.. "why not return it tlike we all do and wait months for replacements?"
answer: Greatt question.. 1 i dont have the luxury to wait months for replacements.. 2 im in a country where i cannot for political reasons import or export anything and if i try to leave with them in a suitcase they will either be taxed with their full price or taken completely because yes that's the country i live in... and you might be tempted to ask " dont you have an ARB dealership " .. Yes!.. Yes we do.. but they are completely useless and cannot do anything including importing proper inventory to sell.. i have no idea why they are actually a dealership..anyway
Now on to the actually important stuff.. how to rebuild them and the very least what to adjust in nitrogen pressure..
I have taken mine apart and rebuilt them and i am here to tell you all the information i have gathered.. Now.. the BP51s are FULLY serviceable and actually every single part in it is replaceable. i have recently blown the oil seals that are located under the Comp and Reb adjusters.. and thank god i had an older shock that was broken i use for spare parts.. that i decided to practice taking apart everything in before getting to work on the one on the car.. i will put photos of the tear down process.. and btw ARB will not sell you the oil seal rebuild kit.. because god knows why.. so just a piece of info that they probably wouldn't want you to know.. take apart the oil seals and go to any store that sells hydraulic oil seals and match them.. they will work just fine.. they dont want anyone else to rebuild them because they probably run RnD on all shocks that come back to them.
My rear left shock burst in 4 places as far as i can tell.. both sides of the reservoir hose and the compression and rebound adjusters stack.. now getting to those seemed impossible and i found NOTHING online because somehow its a more guarded secret than the nuclear codes.. BUT i found it and took it apart.. here are some pics..
So you take apart the shock as you would any other 2.5 shock.. then.. using the adjuster spanner that comes with the kit.. you rotate the compression adjuster all the way down then keep going as it will start rotating on its self like a bottle cap until it comes completely off.. there are 2 oil seals that are 2mm thick on tthe top of it and one also 2 mm i think or 3mm in the middle of the compression adjuster once taken off..
Then it would look like in the picture.... so to take apart the part where it shows the compression and rebound levels.. youll need a T10 hex screw set.. you will take off 4 screws that come up with shimlike spacers (2 on each screw). that twill then reveal a second layer of screws, same deal just take them out but becareful with the orientation of everythting going in and out because they have to align with the bypass tubes in a certain way.. here is a picture of the screwed ...
After taking both rows off. the whole thing comes out with the rebound adjuster that has 4 2mm oil seals 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom and as far as i can tell nothing in the middle... also here are simple pictures to understand the allignment
The 4 holes on top allign with the large bypass tube
and the 8 holes in the bottom allign with the small bypass hole..
I will still be working on the top part of the shock and reservoir hose ends..
Quick conclusion .. Honestly with the crap information around for these amazing shocks and the secrecy with treating the information on it by ARB and their refusal to give you any parts to fix it if you are in a part of the world that cannot deal with them in anyway.. and the dealers are pretty much useless when it comes to then even fixing it themselves.. i have to say that while i love them when they work.. i wouldnt with them on my worst enemy, i will be looking into selling them come summertime and buying a proper suspension system where dealing with it isnt literal rocket science and where i dont have to solve the davinci code just get to a part of it..
P.S: this shock was broken thats why i took it completely apart.. and btw they are charged to 250 PSI nitrogen incase anyone wants to test theirs.. i really think they can go down to 200 but ofcourse i cant be sure because NO ONE IS TELLING ANYTHING... i read on one forum it was 300.. but when i got the new one and tested it, it was 250 so there you go.
