Standard shock strip down

[Will14]

Hi

So today I had one of those rare days with no work and nothing else planned, time to get into the man cave a tinker, among other things I decided to strip one of my standard rear shocks. I chose the shock that had a totally seized adjuster, despite previously soaking it in WD40 and various other anti seize liquids it would not budge, so it was off with the spring then off with the adjuster, initially the piston was stuck solid with all the muck in there but after some more spray and a bit of manipulation it eventually started to move and I was able to remove it fully. At this pint I thought I may have cracked the seized adjuster as well but nope it was still solid. Next I removed the pin that holds the adjuster knob in place by making a cut either side of it then removing it with a small pair of snips and off came the knob revealing the head of the adjuster, I sprayed inside with penetrating spray and left it to do it's work for half an hour or so before putting a 10mm socket on the adjuster head hoping that it would start to turn but no you guessed it, it was solid so a little more pressure I thought then bang the bloody adjuster snapped! 

Just about to give up and throw the pile of bits in a box I got to thinking there must be another way around this, I prefer the look of the standard shocks to any others so I got my thinking cap on  It crossed my mind that with my past 14's once I had set up the rear shocks I never altered the settings again, so why not just do away with having the shocks adjustable and fix them on about 3.5 rings, which is exactly what i'm going to do I thought, it is going to be reasonably easy to do by making a simple spacer to go on the bottom of the piston so when the shock is rebuilt the default setting will be 3.5 rings  rather than zero

The first picture shows the inside of the adjuster, the red arrow is pointing to the lip that stops the piston coming out of the adjuster which is what the new spacer will sit on and is what the piston would be sitting on once the oil has leaked out, so in other words zero rings, my plan will be to raise the height of this lip by making a spacer approx 6mm in height (can't remember the exact height now) giving me a permanent 3.5 rings of adjustment

The second picture shows the snapped adjuster and the piston back in at the new default height with a temporary spacer that I made, the third picture shows the depth of the spacer required on the piston to give 3.5 rings

Just need to find someone who can make me the spacers now, then paint the spring reassemble & fit back on the bike

I hope this is of some interest to someone, if anyone can see a downside other than not being able to adjust the shocks please let me know

Cheers 

Pete





 

[grog]

Will, spacer a great option. My shocks never get adjusted. Someone on old org. did similar but had a threaded collar made, brilliant idea. Still adjustable. I cant find it anywhere so must got lost on old org. crash.

[gsxbarmy]

Will, spacer a great option. My shocks never get adjusted. Someone on old org. did similar but had a threaded collar made, brilliant idea. Still adjustable. I cant find it anywhere so must got lost on old org. crash.

You are right grog, pretty sure that that was @Halibag and he detailed it all on the old org.

[Mister Fishfinger]

What are you going to do with the redundant adjuster knobs?

[Will14]

What are you going to do with the redundant adjuster knobs?

Hi MF, the redundant knobs are going to go back in place, I will probably fix them in place with a blob of silicone on the inside out of site and also put the original retaining pin back in as well so they will look no different to when the adjusters were functional. TBH I could do with one replacement knob as it looks like a previous owner had a go with a pair of grips before i purchased the bike, but thats a minor detail at the moment

Cheers

Pete...