As promised before, Installation report for 2003 GSX-R shock.
First, this is not for the faint of heart with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver!!! Maybe the 90-92 GSX-R shock with a remote reservoir is a better choice, if you can find one.
Blow by Blow:
1. remove gas tank, battery, battery box, air box.
2. put a 2x4 on the ground and put center stand up on it to raise the rear off the ground a lot. You will see why later.
3. Remove the coolant overflow bottle. I found a spot on the left side between the cylinder head and radiator to mount the bottle. I had to modify the horn bracket a little to get it all to fit, but it turned out pretty clean and you can access the bottle without removing any body work.
4. Now its time for the good tools. The bolts that hold the suspension are incredibly tight. You will need good sockets (at least Craftsman or equivalent) and good combination wrenches in 10, 12, 14 and 17mm sizes. You will have bloody knuckles and rounded off nuts (on the bike
) if you use inferior tools. Remove the bolt that holds the dog bones to the shock linkage, remove the upper and lower shock bolts and let the linkage drop down. The shock will easily come out the bottom.
5. You should adjust the shock prior to installation, since the spring is almost impossible to adjust once installed.
5a. If you plan to use the stock dog bones, set the spring near the lowest preload. This will allow the bike to sag about 60 mm and the attitude will be about right once you are sitting on it. Note that the centerstand will no longer raise the rear wheel enough to rotate due to the shock being longer.
5b. I fabricated new dog bones with holes that were 15mm further apart and then I set mine to the middle for compression and rebound damping and adjusted the spring to nearly full preload in order to achieve 25mm rear sag.
6. You will need to grind away sufficient metal in the bottom shock bracket to clear the linkage (I have a sketch, but I can't figure out how to put into post, I'll update it later)
7. The stock dog bones are too close together to clear the spring. You must disassemble the upper dog bone bracket (pull off the right side footpeg, bracket and brake lever. I went to the hardware store and bought 7/16” SAE washers and placed 2 on each side between the dog bones and the frame bracket. You should also do this on the shock linkage when the dog bones are attached. Note that the bolts will be too short to engage the self locking features in the nuts, so I used LockTite on all of the linkage nuts. Ditto for the bottom shock attachment bolt.
8. Install shock and attach dog bones. If you didn’t do item 2 above, the rear tire will be too far up to install shock with the stock dog bones. Reassemble rest of bike. Note that the top of the shock reservoir will be in contact with airbox, but the airbox will flex enough assemble and it should not cause a problem later.
Results: I also installed Race-Tech 0.85 kg/mm fork spings and preloaded them for 25mm of sag and replace the fork oil with 15W Maxima. Overall, the bike feels much tighter (like a Corvette compared to a Chevy Impala). I also installed flat drag bars as a cheap and easy alternative to clip-ons. This was very successful project in terms of performance and feel. I’ll let everyone know how it performs on the track in a couple of weeks. I hope it cures the heavy grounding of the pipe and kick stand I had the last track day.
Total time for the shock installation and mods about 4 hours and 2 hours for the front spring/fork oil change.[/img]
Topic: Follow up to '03 GSX-R 750 shock installation (Read 6562 times)