Race Tech Spring Guide

[BigOgre]

I'll wait to hear from Mike (BigOgre) on what the results were, but I'm guessing he will be very pleased.

"Very pleased" is putting it mildly. Had a smile on my face most of the way home and now can't wait to play with it on different roads. More riding!!

A shout out here to Fred. We spent the better part of a very hot Saturday afternoon sweating in his garage getting these right. Said simply and honestly - Thank You.

AND nobody got hurt! When that nut shot off the damper shaft I strangly thought of Ralphie. I could have shot my eye out!

A few thoughts to add in here. First, I should have realized a lot sooner that something was terribly amiss with the forks but I think I was trying to treat a symptom rather than cure the problem. Almost immediately after installing the forks I became aware of the noise & feel in the front. Searched through a lot of old posts, including one or two that sounded exactly like my situation, but came up empty. Had others listen to it and feel for it, including an attempted parking lot diagnosis at CFR, but to no avail. It was on one of the rides there when Ionbeam even mentioned that he had heard it from his bike while we were riding. I was so fixated on the noise, thinking that was the cause of the harsh ride instead of realizing that the noise was a by-product of an obviously bad suspension. Not the first time I looked at something bass ackwards.

Next, I don't remember who it was but I recall reading about someone here having his springs slip down over the cartridge. Can't say why that happened either but I suppose I lucked out there. With that much compression on my springs with no washers over that amount of time and distance, seems like that might have had potential.

And finally, how did I manage to make this all come about? Think I'll share that in the other thread that's going on now.

 

[Fred W]

Great Mike! I'm glad you found this thread and my prior post. I meant to PM you a link as I was hoping that you would close the loop on how things came out. And there will be no extra charge for the sauna treatment in the garage on Saturday!

Who would have thought that you had upwards of 60mm of spring preload inside that fork? What a chore it must have been for them to compress the spring enough to get that spacer and nut on. The projectile nut was a safety hazard that I did not foresee. We should probably have both had safety glasses on at the time. I'm glad that neither of us were hurt by it. I'll comment more about this "prior service work" in your other linked thread post

Next, I don't remember who it was but I recall reading about someone here having his springs slip down over the cartridge. Can't say why that happened either but I suppose I lucked out there. With that much compression on my springs with no washers over that amount of time and distance, seems like that might have had potential.

The guys that have had their spring bottoms slip down over the cartridge were 2nd gen owners. On our superior first gens there is a large brass stepped "washer" (for lack of a better term) that is pressed down on the top of the cartridge. The washer has a stepped lower surface and flat upper surface that is flush with the top of the cartridge and it's what the spring sits on. It's what you see when you look into the fork leg with the cartridge still inside it.

There's some info in this fork service How-To write up that shows this stepped washer and that it can be hooked and removed if you want to hold the top of the cartridge (using a very long socket/tool) while undoing the bolt at the bottom of the cartridge. Otherwise you can just put the spring back in to hold the cartridge and use an impact wrench to remove the bottom bolt.

Underneath that washer is the stepped brass hex nut on the top of the cartridge. On second gens the bottom of the spring seats directly onto this stepped brass nut (the step holds the spring concentrically). But it also means that if you have a bare aftermarket spring that is slightly too large in diameter it can spread out and slide down over the entire cartridge. Now, if some bozo put the Race Tech springs into a second gen upside down...

Aftermarket suspension shops don't do seem to a very good job of recognizing the difference between 1st and 2nd gens. That was why we needed to use the stepped brass washer (that RaceTech provides for the top of the spring) on the bottom of your springs to hold the spring concentrically. If it had been a 2nd gen the stepped brass top of the cartridge and it would have been fine. I think the fact that the bottom of your spring was on the flat top of the washer allowed it to work itself sideways and contact the inside of the upper fork tube.

In retrospect, we could have tried removing the stock 1st gen stepped washer and see if the spring bottom would have seated on the step on the top of the cartridge like it does on a 2nd gen. Then we could have used all of your Race Tech parts including the torpedo shaped spring guide as they intended. That may have been what Race Tech intended us to do. It would have been nice if they provided some directions.

That is also probably why my GP Suspensions springs have those little collets pressed into the bottom end of the springs, so it can't expand and slip down over the top of the cartridge. Think I'll see if I can get that to work when I do mine.

 

[TripperMike]

Thanks for starting this thread. A year ago winter I replaced my springs with RT springs and noticed a knocking sound everytime I went over a noticeable bump. This Spring I went with the gold valve kit. Knocking noise got worse. I guess it's time to completely disassemble the forks, reread this thread, look at more pics and try to determine where I went wrong with the springs. Perhaps I erred in thinking that what I got from RT would be perfectly correct. Can't rule out though that just maybe I reinstalled parts in the wrong order.