Always Dreamin

Today as I was rebuilding my shocks, I came across a few questions. What I had been doing up until this point is filling the shock cap with a little oil, pushing the little rubber fitting into the shock cap, and the shock body all the way up. Then I would quickly assemble to keep the shock oil in, and if I got it just right, the shocks would compress until the perfect point, and then stop. This would usually keep me from bottoming out, and it saved my Swami bar a few scratches. Since I'm using the aluminum big bores, I figured they could handle it. My friend pushed down on my a-arm fairly hard and the shock gave in and now compressed all the way instead of stopping. I figured that he had sprung a leak as the shocks now did not have a point at which they stopped besides all the way compressed. I checked, there was no leaks. I'm wondering if this is how your supposed to fill your shocks, or maybe I was doing the wrong thing. It seemed to work, but like I said, my friend was able to just push against it and loosen it. So now I'm thinking I have a broken seal. I take my shocks apart using Mis' guide. In his guide, after taking off the two e-clips piston head, and shock shaft, he says to remove the cap on the lower end of the shock. I noticed that only the plastic big bores have this. I gave up on it, and put them back together, but this time I did it the way he suggested; put the cap facing out, fill the shock full until about 1/16 of an inch, and assemble. I did that, now they work fine IMO. I'm wondering if what I was doing was bad, how to rebuild my shocks, if they need a rebuild (they have been rebuilt many times with just oil), and maybe some tips on keeping them lasting good. I have the complete rebuild kit right here, so if that's what I need to do, let me know how and I will do it. I'm using 35wt oil in the front, and 40 wt in the rear with stock Traxxas white springs.

Thanks,
AD

Always Dreamin

FYI the reason I ask is because my dad has plastic shocks, and they run smoother then mine. Maybe it's my suspension pins, or binding somewhere, but I just think that something is wrong. IMO it's not ideal to bottom out, then again, i've hard otherwise, maybe I could get this cleared up.

Always Dreamin

Anyone? [:@]