Friction shocks

Does anyone have pictures of friction shocks in pieces ?

I don't have a picture of one, but I can describe it... Imagine a multiplate clucth and you've got the right idea. More plates = more friction surface More squeeze (tighten bolt)=more damping

That describes them pretty well. Or picture two flat plates, one is stationary ans the other has an arm on it . Put them together with some friction material between and an adjusment bolt to tighten or loosen.

These came from a customers e36, said customer ran them blown for so long that they became friction shocks.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416119&highlight=friction+shock

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=272516&highlight=friction+shock

Dammit, Trans Maro, beat me to the HAMB plug.

Where I am confused is what keeps the plates from grabbing each other spinning rather then rubbing?

One side is anchored to the sprung structure, the other to the unsprung structure. The central bolt is only to control tension.

Here's a random idea. The central bolt usually has a wingnut to allow for easy adjustments to dampening, what if there was a way to 'fix' the wingnut to the sprung portion. The plan being to cause it to tighten, giving stiffer dampening with more radical suspension compression.

The primary problem I can think of, is with suspension that has a significant amount of sag, there would also be a significant amount of dampening reduction when unloaded. I'm not sure how bad that would be though.

I have two friction shock material pads but what I am asking is what keeps say one of the pads from spinning when it comes in to contact with the ither pad or is there just one pad per side?

96DXCivic, One set of plates is held from the middle (like the clutch disc on the input shaft). The other set of plates is held from the outside (either in an open side box or some other method that resembles external splines, could be all of the second set are fixed to an arm on onside) Basically wrapping the first set inside the second set and squeeze them together. xci_ed6: your idea about adjusting with travel is a good one, but the thread pitch on the part you describe would have to be very fine.