Wilber's front spring install

[RTSR1/FJR]

I posted this in another thread, but wanted to get more thoughts on it, so here it is!

I'm installing my front springs in the '03 FJR this weekend and noticed a few things that caused me concern. First the airspace was way off even with the stock springs still in. I saw 120 mm and still no evidence of oil on the ruler (yes the forks were bottomed and vertical)! S/B 79 mm per the manual (no seal leaks either), then removed the damper cartridge and noticed approx. 10 mm slop between spring an washer before removal off of damper rod. Measured spring and service limit is 264 mm max. S/B 270 free length, measured 260! Humm? The Wilber's spring measures 285 mm. Spacer is supposed to be 143.5 mm, measures 149 mm. Anyone else come up with these #'s as well? Debating if I should trim the spacer to 143.5 now. :blink:

I think it was past due for a suspension tune up, or maybe proper setup from the factory! lol

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

Well, I went ahead and installed the springs as suggested by Klaus at Wilbers even with the discrepancies I encountered during disassembly. Let me tell you what! It's a different bike! Only thing I did different was to mix the oil. Klaus said 7.5, and all I could find was 7 or 10w Belray, so I mixed them 50/50 for 8.5w (did it in racing many times). Works great! Haven't had time to set sag yet, so I just set it to Std. setting in the manual. Hopefully get around to it next week. I'm sure some fine tuning on the damping circuits will be performed also, but not a whole lot! Ride is firm without jarring and it just swallows up the little stuff. No more front end diving on the brakes now either, except for what it's supposed to do. It was bad before! lol Between the Shock and Forks, it's a different bike now! Well worth the $800!

 

[Grumpy]

+1

jim

 

[Ramblin Man]

So your springs are a hell of a lot longer than stock also? I just posted about that in another section.

 

[HIGHLANDER]

Yep 2", posted up in your tech section question.

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

So your springs are a hell of a lot longer than stock also? I just posted about that in another section.

Yeah, the stockers mea. 260mm (definately sacked out). That's unless the spec's between the Euro are different. I have a Euro manual and a US bike. The new springs were 285mm. Like I said in the other post, the spacers were longer than spec also! Need to see a US spec manual to confirm differences. Everthing seems to work good though,

 

[FJRPierre]

I had the same concern when I installed my springs last year. I sent Klaus the following email and his reply. Actually once oilfilled (100mm air gap) it was surprisingly easy to press down the new spring and screw the cap on.

From: FJRPierre To: RUN-N-LITES Klaus Huenecke

Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 9:39 AM

Subject: Wilbers fork spring question- 03FJR

Hi again so I'm doing my fork springs and was doing a dry run without oil to get the reinstall procedure right. With the FJR spacer in, I am having a real hard time with the spacer just barely allowing enough room for the nut and nothing to put the cap on, even by trying to compress the spring. I decide to compare the old springs with the new ones and I see the new ones are 26mm longer than the old one. The old is roughly261mm and the new is 287mm. The Wilber documentation says it's a 600-276-00 and the stamp on the Wilbers spring says w8(?)5. Could you confirm that I working with the right spring and all will work out ok when I fill the fork with oil. regards

Pierre

----- Original Message -----

From: RUN-N-LITES Klaus Huenecke

To: FJRPierre

Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 12:02 PM

Subject: Re: Wilbers fork spring question- 03FJR

Yes, you have the correct spring. You may want to reduce the pre-load (I believe there is an install write up on the FJR site from Dale Wilson = warchild). The stock springs required full pre-load which was most of the problem.

Regards

Klaus Huenecke