| Author | Message | ||
     Mbsween |
At the risk of sounding stupid..... Where do I go from here? Forks disassembled nicely so I thought I'd install the gold valve kit/racetech springs after reading many rave reviews. Bought the kit form Al @ American Sport bike (outstanding service as always). So I get the kit and it looks like the compression adjuster must live in the damping rod, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to disassemble the beast. Is the top portion threaded ? Is some sort of special tool required to take it apart? Am I just being an idiot???  | ||
| Someday |
I recommend calling Al. | ||
| Al_lighton |
There are some very good step by step instructions located here: http://waste.org/~knobs/fork_rebuild1.html It's for a Ducati, not a Buell, but it's still a Showa inverted fork and most of what they show is accurate in concept, even if there are very noticeable differences (i.e., the fork end bolt) But the key is to get the cartridge pushed in further a little so that the retaining ring is exposed. You can't see it when the cartridge is all the way down. There are a couple little dimples that need to be removed with a drill. That's the "hardest" part of the job. You can see a little bit more of that on a Buell specific Showa fork here: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/476 23/548184.html#POST1763138 You're only removing the cartridge, you don't need to disassemble the entire damper rod assy. Looks like you have a decent camera for this, might be a good idea to post a few pictures into a thread in the suspension section. Al | ||
| Mbsween |
Al, Okay, I was a b it scared of the idea of drilling the damping rod, but now it makes sense. I'll drill out the dimples and post the results. thanks Matt | ||
| Mbsween |
So here we go, to get the racetech gold vale in, you have to get the stock stuff out All you need to is trust that this  (5/32" bit for the record) Won't damage this  Too badly So after you drill out the dimple, you can remove the snap ring pretty easily  Then you can pull the compression valve out, sloooooowly  Take you time, it will come out, and you'll be rewarded with this (the partial o-ring is from another bike)  The compression valve comes apart to give you the stack  Then its a matter of sanding the damper rod to remove any burrs from the drill and then redo the stack by the racetech site info, which is in your gold valve kit | ||
| Blks1l |
I remember having a hard time getting the valve back in without damaging the o-ring. | ||
| Mbsween |
Well I took a break from this for a bit, but now I'm back. Just wanted to review my work. I'll be talking to Racetech tomorrow to confirm. Here's the shim stack I'm planning to do. The only part that's confusing to me is the Racetech Diagram shows 2 base plate washers on each stack (the kit includes 4) . But the words only indicate one. Do any of you who've done this mod know what the correct answer is?  Thanks matt | ||
| Boss_sparky |
Mbsween did you ever finish this??? How are the results? I put the gold valves in the forks on my sporty and was very happy with the results. Wondering if it will be worth my time and $ on the buell. |
