Rear shock linkage maintenance

[petey]

Wow Skooter......simply amazing. Your solution for access to the center stand bolts is by far the best I have seen to date.

At first I wasn't going to post any of this. As much as it may seem contrary, I don't enjoy sharing my ****-ups with the entire world.

But......... The entertainment value of the photo of the FJR dangling is just too great.

And, more importantly, if I can save just one person from doing the same thing..............

Skooty, that sucks,

but I want to thank you for posting it. IT WILL help a lot of us to be more carefull when working/lifting on our bikes...

 

[Donal]

I guess we all have our own ways of supporting the bike for this sort of maintenance. Here's a few pics of how I do it..........

"Bike Grab" to stabilise the front wheel. I set the bike on the centre stand, raise the front wheel with a jack under the headers and then fit the Bike Grab to the wheel. This ensures the the bike is upright.

I use a Unistrut stand to raise the bike. The 2 x 250 Kg chain blocks were bought cheap on E-bay.

Close up of the chain block/sling arrangement.

To store the 'lifting frame' I just remove 4 x bolts which breaks it down into three sections (2 x uprights + 1 x crosspiece) - takes about two minutes.

 

[Fred W]

Those two little chain falls are a nice find!

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Wow Skooter......simply amazing. Your solution for access to the center stand bolts is by far the best I have seen to date.

At first I wasn't going to post any of this. As much as it may seem contrary, I don't enjoy sharing my ****-ups with the entire world.

But......... The entertainment value of the photo of the FJR dangling is just too great.

And, more importantly, if I can save just one person from doing the same thing..............

Skooter,

Really,ι took a lesson from these pictures!Thanks for the report and the pictures..!

 

[odot]

I am glad greece got that figured out. I'm still worried bout us 'mericans, though. Now if greece can figure out that austerity thing they will be the worlds next super power....

 

[Mihalis fjr]

I am glad greece got that figured out. I'm still worried bout us 'mericans, though. Now if greece can figure out that austerity thing they will be the worlds next super power....

Sorry odot,because my English is not very good,I am self learning English could you please explain what you mean with more easy words?

 

[RadioHowie]

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

Nobody else writes my posts.My English is really not very good,i get help from dictionary and from google translate some times.Some words sometimes mean something else from that you read..Anyway,thanks for your confrontation...

 

[odot]

I'm saying YOU guys are smarter then US guys. Someone else here in the U.S. will eventually suspend their motorcycle up with chicken wire then wonder why it fell down.

 

[ionbeam]

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

Nobody else writes my posts.My English is really not very good.Some words sometimes mean something else from that you read..Anyway,thanks for your confrontation...

Radio Howie was saying that someone else must have written Odot's message because Odot does not know big words, just little words for drinking and sex, with some drug words mixed in. (Say, he is living a good life, eh?)

Small words: Odot is glad you figured it out. He has concern that us Americans can't figure out some things. If the Greek government can find a way to not spend so much money they can be leaders in the world.

 

[Mihalis fjr]

I'm saying YOU guys are smarter then US guys. Someone else here in the U.S. will eventually suspend their motorcycle up with chicken wire then wonder why it fell down.

odot,

i am not feeling smarter from US guys.All these time that i am a member here i have learn many good things from you also i have buy nany farkles from some members here,and when i was needed help for anything you help me.and i want to thank you all. i want to do the same linkage service in to my bike and i told i took a lesson from these pictures and i will try be careful to don't happen and to me the same.Sorry if or for any misread..

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Greek people going through tough times like Italian Spain,Portugal people but not blame for the stupidity of every government and i mean every government all the last years..

 

[RadioHowie]

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

Nobody else writes my posts.My English is really not very good,i get help from dictionary and from google translate some times.Some words sometimes mean something else from that you read..Anyway,thanks for your confrontation...

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

Nobody else writes my posts.My English is really not very good.Some words sometimes mean something else from that you read..Anyway,thanks for your confrontation...

Radio Howie was saying that someone else must have written Odot's message because Odot does not know big words, just little words for drinking and sex, with some drug words mixed in. (Say, he is living a good life, eh?)

Small words: Odot is glad you figured it out. He has concern that us Americans can't figure out some things. If the Greek government can find a way to not spend so much money they can be leaders in the world.

Mihalis,

I WAS referring to odot in my reply, not you, as Ionbeam wrote. I would NEVER insult one of my Ouzo-drinking Forum friends from the Home of Democracy!

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

Nobody else writes my posts.My English is really not very good,i get help from dictionary and from google translate some times.Some words sometimes mean something else from that you read..Anyway,thanks for your confrontation...

Easy words are all he knows....someone else wrote his last post.

Nobody else writes my posts.My English is really not very good.Some words sometimes mean something else from that you read..Anyway,thanks for your confrontation...

Radio Howie was saying that someone else must have written Odot's message because Odot does not know big words, just little words for drinking and sex, with some drug words mixed in. (Say, he is living a good life, eh?)

Small words: Odot is glad you figured it out. He has concern that us Americans can't figure out some things. If the Greek government can find a way to not spend so much money they can be leaders in the world.

Mihalis,

I WAS referring to odot in my reply, not you, as Ionbeam wrote. I would NEVER insult one of my Ouzo-drinking Forum friends from the Home of Democracy!

RadioHowie,

Don't worry!No problem at all

 

[Auburn]

To bring the discussion back to the origianl shock in the thread, here and here

Here is the pictures from the shock tear down: (Note the shock is in the vice upside down) It is dirty from the last ride which included about 20 miles of gravel road going down the Burr Trail in September. See the gravel laying inside the spring.

Notice the thread damage covering 3-4 threads (from top of picture). Thanks to Fairlainer's reference and pictures in the Missing mud flap thread on a 2013 and Ahchiu's link to where you can buy the inner hugger rear fender, I now have a rear hugger going on my bike to further protect from gravel and other debris being thrown at the shock.

Also you will notice the black plastic that protects the braided line from damage has some wear about halfway down it. This is from rubbing on the swing arm. I have rerouted the line to prevent it from rubbing on the swing arm.

The oil and solids in the oil from it breaking down over time (some of that is air but mostly solids suspended in the oil). What is missing is the smell that goes with the breakdown. Picture the smell of a septic tank on steroids. Stinks really bad.

Notice all the dirt that came off outside the shock laying on top of the vice.

Internals, not all the solids in the oil again

With the plunger removed, you can see the dirt and grime

plunger removed

top of resevoir

Inside of resevoir, note again all the solids in the oil

another shot

shims stack - you can see all the wear the solids did to the shims. They are stainless steel - I don't know what grade

Moral of the story, don't let your shock go too long before maintenance. Because I went too long, in this case 27,870 miles, I had to rebuild the shims stacks which cost about another $150 to the maintenance. With the riding I do, I probably should be getting it done about every 15,000-20,000 miles at the worst case or every two years.

If you find you have window of a couple of weeks where you can pull the shock and send it in. It might be worth it to you. For me that convenient window is during the winter. I'll be doing mine in the winter if it is close to being due on mileage or I can't make it another season, I'll pull it early and send it in.

I do run my shock pretty hard because I and riding two up, towing a trailer and playing in the twisties most of the time. To me it is worth the cost to keep it perfoming like it should.

 

[JamesK]

Wow, very interesting pics thanks. I was under the impression that you required special tools and other "big" equipment to pull apart and rebuild a rear shock since its pressurized. I've never seen the innards of one of these before.

Other than riding two-up riding and towing a trailer though (I do have full panniers and 1/2 full topbox pretty much always) I am sure I put my Penske 8983 shock through similar or worse usage (ride pretty aggressively and don't shy away from gravel roads) but for the last 160k I have consistently gotten around 50k miles b/w rebuilds. So it sounds strange that yours would need a rebuild at 15-20k intervals.

 

[yamafitter]

Wow, very interesting pics thanks. I was under the impression that you required special tools and other "big" equipment to pull apart and rebuild a rear shock since its pressurized. I've never seen the innards of one of these before.

It does require special tools and equipment to safely service the rear shock. For example a number of people have been injured compressing the rear spring to remove the cap that holds the spring in place. With some training and a few special tools it is possible to service your own rear shock but for the few times you need to service the rear shock it may not be cost effective to invest in all the required tooling to do this.

IMHO it makes more sense to have some one knowledgable who has serviced enough shocks to properly inspect and service a rebuildable rear shock. I have worked on my own bikes for a lot of years but a rear shock rebuild is something I leave to a professional.

 

[Auburn]

Wow, very interesting pics thanks. I was under the impression that you required special tools and other "big" equipment to pull apart and rebuild a rear shock since its pressurized. I've never seen the innards of one of these before.

It does require special tools and equipment to safely service the rear shock. For example a number of people have been injured compressing the rear spring to remove the cap that holds the spring in place. With some training and a few special tools it is possible to service your own rear shock but for the few times you need to service the rear shock it may not be cost effective to invest in all the required tooling to do this.

IMHO it makes more sense to have some one knowledgable who has serviced enough shocks to properly inspect and service a rebuildable rear shock. I have worked on my own bikes for a lot of years but a rear shock rebuild is something I leave to a professional.

Correct, I did not show all the special tools and jigs they used to dissaemble, service and reassemble this shock. Ohlins even has a special rig for putting the oil and pressurizing the shock.

 

[LAF]

Well a shock sock from Traxxion would have stoped the external crud and stones, and not that expensive. I would buy one if I were you.

I have been running the Greece made hugger since I saw the first post on it. I do beleive it helps also.

 

[Fred W]

I chose yesterday as my rear linkage disassembly and re-lube day. The bike is now 9 years old and has >75k miles on it. The only other time that I had done this maintenance was 2 years ago at 45k miles. The pivots, especially the wider spaced ones at each end of the dog-bones, do tend to get some one-sided wear on them. By that I mean that you will see marks where the needles had been rubbing only on one side of the inner race circumference. That's because these bearings are only required to rotate a few degrees throughout the full articulation of the suspension, so that is the only part of it that is supporting the weight of the bike.

Mine at 75k look pretty much the same as they did at 45k, which is much like the photos posted by wmadoty here. His might have been looking a little worse as my worn spots just looked shiny, not blackened, but that may be a camera artifact. The key thing is that they look the same 30k miles later, and so long as they still rotate smoothly with no signs of corrosion (rust)or other water / salt damage they should be good for another round.

At first maintenance the bearings had the same appearance as in his photo report, very little in the way of lubrication. But I used a generous amount of water resistant, marine wheel bearing grease in there the last time and it was still in good evidence yesterday. So I just cleaned out the old and gobbed on some new. My conclusion is that they just do not use very much grease on these pivots at the factory.

I had picked out the plastic like waxy spacer material the last time, thinking that it was some sort of congealed grease. Those bearings certainly seem no worse for that 30k miles later, so I guess that is a non-issue. Makes more room for some good grease I guess too.

I used the technique described earlier by Donal here to get that frozen spacer out of the upper relay arm pivot frame tab. It worked great, and now that I've cleaned and greased it I'm hoping it comes out a bit easier next time. So, no need to cut or reverse that bolt after all.

But there is no way around removing the center stand if you want to get to that upper front pivot without taking a grinding wheel to it like Queensland Ken described here. And removing the center stand is what makes this job such a PITA. I would seriously consider doing all but that one pivot the next time just so I don't have to remove the center-stand. Evidence seems to support that it is the two ends of the dog bones that get the worst of the wear for some reason. Either that or maybe reducing the side-stand bracket by 50% with a grinder wouldn't be so bad in comparison?

Oh, and I just used the typical black iron pipe stand and two ratchet straps from the sub-frame to the stand to hold the bike up without the center-stand, and the bike didn't even try to take a SkooterG nap.