How To Rebuild a Motorcycle Shock

you in this video I'm going to show you how to rebuild the shock on your motorcycle Rocky Mountain has the parts you need to do the job right including a variety of shock oils and seal kits general tools are required as well as a few specialty tools we're going to need a tusk seal Bullitt race tech seal head setting tool tusk shock preload adjusting tool and in some cases the Tusk shock reservoir cap removal tool to start I'm going to spray a little bit of oil on the threads of the top of the shock and then loosen the top lock nut it's a lot easier to do on the bike and I'm going to pull my exhaust take the seat off and then the tank now we can go ahead and loosen the air boot on the back of the carburetor loosen the lower subframe bolts and then we're going to remove the upper subframe bolt altogether this is going to allow the subframe to drop back a little bit giving us better access to the shock now we can remove the lower bolt and nut from the shock once that's out the swingarm will drop and then we can remove the nut washer and bolt from the upper shock hold on to the shock while you remove the bolt so the shock doesn't drop once that's out we should be able to remove the shock from the motorcycle if you haven't done it already now is a good time to put on safety glasses if you want to save yourself some work later measure the length of the shock spring this will make setting your sag a lot easier when you're done I like to begin disassembly by releasing the nitrogen out of the shock reservoir then I'm going to loosen the locknut on the shock and then the lower nut I'm going to do this by putting it in a vise and twisting the spring once it's loose I can push it the rest of the way back with my finger move the rubber bumper down the collar will drop and you'll be able to remove the retaining ring that holds the spring on now in this video I'm rebuilding a Kayaba shock the procedure for a show of shock is pretty much the same but removing the spring is a little bit different you've got to kind of knock the two retaining collars loose from each other to reveal a small circlet on a show a shock once you use a little screwdriver or pick to remove that little circlet you can separate the two collars and then remove the spring from the shock that's pretty much the main difference between a Shoah and Kayaba shock back to our K Alba shot at the bottom of the shock we have a little seal cover we're just going to use a little punch there's two holes in this cover we can just kind of tap on those holes to remove the cover and this will reveal our dust seal and the seal head right below that we want to make sure to clean this really good I'm going to use some contact cleaner and a rag and using my race tech seal setting tool I'm going to push down I may have to release more of the pressure out of the reservoir as I push that down it's going to build pressure so I'm pushing the seal head down to reveal the small circlip that holds the seal head in place using a small screwdriver or pick I'm going to remove the circlip and once again I want to clean this area really well it's going to make the removal of the seal head a lot easier if it's clean at this point I'm going to remove the valve stem I could have done this earlier but I'm going to remove it now and I'm going to mark the location of that stem in relation to my shock body makes it easier to set up when I'm done now I can push the bladder into the body of the shock and this is going to reveal the circlip that holds the bladder in place so once again using a small screwdriver and pick I'm going to work that circlip out sometimes these are a little tricky they take a little bit of patience once that's out again I'm going to clean this it's going to make the removal of the bladder a lot easier if it's clean I'm even going to use a little bit of air on both of them the mixture I don't have any dust with a rag over the sill area of the shock I'm going to carefully move the shaft of the shock up and down and work the seal head out of the shock dump the oil in a pan and following the seal head is the piston and valve stack now I'm going to work on removing the bladder wiggle this back and forth and then with the bladder out I'm going to make sure all the oil is out of the shock on many shocks and may be difficult to get a hold of the bladder cap to pull it out the showa shocked shown here has a bladder cap that sits into the reservoir of the shock if you have a shock with a centered valve stem like this the Tusk reservoir cap removal tool threads onto the valve stem and allows you to pull the cap and bladder out easily with the bladder out go ahead and clean the body of the shock I'm going to spray it out and wipe it out with a clean rag and then I'm going to wipe off the bladder as well to remove the seal head we have to remove the piston and valve stack and to do this I'm going to wrap a rag around the piston and the valve stack and wrap a little bit of tape on it to hold it tight the shock shaft has been pinned on the outer edges and on the center hole the goal is to grind the PDAF the nut so it can be removed on many shocks especially show up it's important not to grind the painting around the center hole this painting keeps the rebound seat in place once you have ground the edge on the shaft around the nut remove the rag and then remove the nut once the nut has been removed I like to get a screwdriver set it in the end of the shaft and pull the piston valve stack all the washers off together that way I can't get them mixed up there are a lot of washers here these are used to control your valving and you don't want to get those out of place then we can go ahead and remove the seal body and a little cap on the end and since we ground the end of the shaft it's a good idea to take a small file and just make sure those threads are clean using compressed air I'm going to clean the shock shaft and I'm going to do the same to the piston and valve stacks in preparation for assembly on my right I have an all balls brand shock seal kit it's the complete seal head assembly so it makes changing the seal on your bike convenient we also sell seals and dust seal separately and these can be installed on your existing seal head to do that we're going to pop the rubber o-ring out of the backside there's going to be a washer and then the actual oil seal carefully pry that out with a screwdriver pay attention to how it was sitting in the seal body there's another washer underneath we're going to clean that real well and then using a screwdriver we're going to pry the dust seal off the top now we can install the new dust seal we're going to put some grease on it and then press it on to the seal body since this has a steel frame it's pretty tight so we're going to use a socket to tap it on once that's on we're going to reassemble the oil seal put the washer in oil up the seal put it in flat side down and then the other washer and then the rubber o-ring that sits right on top and holds everything together so now we're ready to start assembling the shock you'll notice on the shaft this edge is very sharp that's where the seal bullet comes in handy slides over the end and kind of removes that sharp edge this will prevent you from cutting the new seal go ahead and slide the seal cap on and then the seal head assembly carefully slide it over the bullet and onto the shaft with the seal head in place we can remove the seal bullet and install the piston and valve stack so putting the screwdriver back on the end of the shaft I'm just going to carefully work all the little washers into place since I've kind of moved them around it's tricky lining up the center hole on the shaft but keeping the screwdriver on everything keeps everything in order so you can't mess anything up once it's in place we're going to install a new nut with high-strength thread Locker go ahead and thread that onto the shaft and then we're going to torque the nut down to about 35 foot-pounds once that's on wipe off any excess thread Locker and just to be safe I'm going to put a couple punch marks between the nut and the shaft to work as another Locker to make sure that nut doesn't come off at this point I want to loosen the compression adjuster all the way out this makes oil flowing between the reservoir and shock body a little bit easier so I'm going to pour a little bit of oil in and I'm making sure it's running through to the reservoir if not I'm going to tap it a little bit this will push the oil through and make sure we don't get air caught in between then I'm going to fill the reservoir about halfway and install the bladder you want to make sure you have enough oil in that it's pouring out like this that way you know you have enough you're not getting air stuck inside I have a pan underneath to catch all the excess oil and I'm just going to push the bladder and bladder cap down into the reservoir just far enough to reveal the little groove for my c-clip and I'm going to put the c-clip in place and notice I lined up the valve stem with the little mark on the reservoir there I'm going to install the valve stem using the Tusk suspension pump fill the bladder to 40 to 50 psi this will allow me to safely see the bladder cap see as well as allowing the bladder to keep the correct volume in the reservoir while installing the shaft and seal head a bicycle pump can be used as well but this tusk pump has a convenient pressure gauge built in do not use high pressure compressed air now we're ready to install the shock shaft and seal head we're going to fill the rest of the shock body with oil close to the top and then we're slowly going to work the piston and valving into the shock once it's in we're going to pump the shock up and down you're going to see a lot of bubbles come up might start foaming let that settle a little bit till all the bubbles are gone once the bubbles are gone we're ready to push the seal head into the body of the shock so we're going to top off the shock with oil and then we're going to push the seal head down into the body you're going to notice you can only push so far and then the pressure won't allow you to go in anymore so we're going to have to remove a valve stem again using the race tech tool we're going to push the seal head into the body we want to make sure we push this in far enough to expose the circlip groove again once that's exposed we can install the clip install the valve stem and then pump a little bit of air into the shock just enough to see that seal head seat once the seal head is seated go ahead and put the cover back on I have to carefully tap that on with the mallet once that's in place we'll make sure the shock is clean get all the oil off of it and then we can put the spring back on slide the spring over and then the different callers you'll have to move the rubber bumper out of the way again hold the spring up in place and then tighten the lower nut to the spring continue to tighten the spring until you reach the spring length you started with before disassembly the final step is to release any air pressure in the shock and then fill it with nitrogen only qualified and certified technicians should charge the nitrogen most shops can do this for a small fee install the shock on the bike and you're ready to ride Rocky Mountain carries a huge inventory of oay and aftermarket parts and accessories for your machine call us or visit us online at Rocky Mountain atv/mc calm

Channel: Rocky Mountain ATV MC

Views: 1,569,244

Rating: 4.7800884 out of 5

Keywords: Motorcycle Shock Rebuild, Rear Shock, Replace, Dirt Bike Shock Rebuild, Seal Head, valve stack, All Balls, Rebuild, Replacement, Dirt Bike, Shock, Suspension, How to, Remove, Motocross, Motorcycle, Rocky Mountain, ATVMC, ATV, Off-road, Pivot Works, Shock Fluid, Yamalube, Race Tech, rocky mountain atv, oil seal

Id: 0_InEnom2ec

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Tue May 20 2014