I picked up a pair of touring shocks I was going to put on my dyna. I went to put air in them to see if they held and I got oil coming out of the air inlet, Im pretty sure this isnt normal. Any ideas or are they trash?

 

Well that depends. If you installed them and bounced up & down to check them out without the hose set up - no. Install the hose, schraider valve and put about 5# of air in them and you'll be just fine. It's an air OVER oil air shock. The local Stealership has a replacement hose/valve kit that works very well.

 

no they arent installed yet. I put a gauge on to check the pressure and oil shot out the valve.

 

anyone else?

 

there's no separation between the oil and air, it's all in one big chamber. The question is, unless you bought them new, is there enough oil left inside or did some drain out from storage by the previous owner? they should be shipped and stored with the air holes plugged to prevent leakage.

 

FWIW when I rebuilt a set a few years ago I put in 10oz of 10wt BelRay shock fluid in each (regular ATF will work as well)

 

they don't come with Schrader valves stock because they use an air line kit with t fitting.. did you install new valves? if so
I would check to make sure the Schrader valve is good and if so that the gut is tight as it sounds like they arent sealing..
also
they take 11oz of oil which you will need to change out to 10wt anyway since touring oil is only 5wt and will give you a baby coach ride if you don't change it out

 

They have probably been laying on their side and the oil drained into the air fill end of the shock. Now you don't know how much oil is in the shock that the oil came out of. Best to drain and refill them with shock oil. The instructions are on the touring forum. I have changed oil on a set and it's easy if you have a Mity-Vac, really hard if you don't.

 

I too am getting ready to add some 13s to my Bob and in researching I want to say I think someone had stated to make sure you compress the shock while adding the schrader valve. Or is it simply 11oz in each shock, put the valve on (use some pipe dope to get a good seal) and then put them on?
Can anyone speak to this or have experience?

 

I didn't compress mine, drained for 3 days and then refilled, installed Schrader valves
and have been fine ever since.. had this set on my wideglide and now on my switchback