Seldon/Kemp Gas Strut replacement

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Turtlemouse

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Just replaced the gas strut in my Seldon/Kemp kicker. Seldon wanted £275 for the part, but after a little on-line research, I got the identical gas strut, this time in stainless steel, from SGS Engineering for £70 inc VAT! How can Seldon justify their price??
 
I bought a couple of custom stainless gas struts recently from a standard engineering gas strut supplier for about £70 ea, Sparcraft or some distributor wanted double that for non stainless. The originals had, guess what?...........corroded away. If you want more info, let me know.
 
Turtlemouse said:
Just replaced the gas strut in my Seldon/Kemp kicker. Seldon wanted £275 for the part, but after a little on-line research, I got the identical gas strut, this time in stainless steel, from SGS Engineering for £70 inc VAT! How can Seldon justify their price??
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Mine has just failed and I'll take your advice and order a replacement gas strut from SGS.
One question, its not immediately obvious how to get the old strut out of the vang assembly, do I need to drill the rivets out?
 
Really simple job if it is the same as mine (rounded box sections, i.e. not tubular). The ends are only held in place by small plastic "tabs" sticking through holes in the side. Remove the strut, lay it on the ground and press in the small black plastic bits visible in holes on either side. You should be able to gently lever out the end cover and extract the whole strut from inside the body. It is more difficult to describe than it is to actually do the job (unless it isn't the same model). This document has a diagram showing how the bits are assembled. http://www.seldenmast.com/search.cfm?downloadmanual=2379711&filename=595-558-E.pdf
 
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Mistroma said:
Really simple job if it is the same as mine (rounded box sections, i.e. not tubular). The ends are only held in place by small plastic "tabs" sticking through holes in the side. Remove the strut, lay it on the ground and press in the small black plastic bits visible in holes on either side. You should be able to gently lever out the end cover and extract the whole strut from inside the body. It is more difficult to describe than it is to actually do the job (unless it isn't the same model). This document has a diagram showing how the bits are assembled. http://www.seldenmast.com/search.cfm?downloadmanual=2379711&filename=595-558-E.pdf
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Thanks that's very useful. I got the strut out ok, at the top end of the strut the plastic assembly unscrewed from the ram, but the similar fitting at the lower end is proving more difficult. Is this also screwed or is it a push fitting?
 
Mistroma said:
Assuming it is the same as mine, the body just unscrews as well in same manner as the piston end. Mine was a little tight but not excessively.

Model I had was 1400N, steel body & s/s rod with screw fittings at either end.
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I got it sorted, the thread on the strut end stud was well and truly seized onto the vang slider, I had to drill a pilot hole in the strut to release any remaining pressure (taking significant precautions), then I cut the end of the strut off and the end of the stud was visible. Luckily it had a convex dimple in the centre of the stud so drilling it out enabled me eventually to free the end fitting from the stud without damaging its thread.
Fitted the replacement 2500N strut from those very helpful people at SGS and 10 minutes later the vang was back in use.
Total cost less than £50
Cannot recommend SGS highly enough they provided superb service.
 
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