I have a 1999 ss with the fully adjustable forks. I have a problem with them, the compression dampers don't work. A previous owner has had them set up by maxton. Does any one have a break down of the internals so I have some some point of reference before I strip them.
Probable that on reassembly the needles have not seated correctly,unfortunately the Showa compression dampers are rarer than rocking horse poo,if you know any Ducati racers could be worth a try,or certain suspension specialists,best of luck,and to be honest they are not the most crucial suspension components.
The problem I have is that the front end has absolutely no damping at all. As soon as I touch the brake lever the front end tries to bury itself. It's very unpleasant to try and corner with any kind of speed when you're not really sure what the front wheel is doing.
I have a Haynes and to be honest there's more detail on a crisp packet on what's in a set of Showa forks.
That does not sound like a compression damper problem,have the fork seals blown.ie not much fork fluid left,springs sound knackered,all sounds knackered.
That's how I did it. As for the maxton set up, that doesn't really matter as the dampers don't work (fully in or out makes no difference) if I'm on the bike or not. I even tried compressing them off the bike and then adjusting them. Then I measured the oil level, then changed the oil just to be sure. The next step was going to be a strip down but the Haynes book of bollocks just isn't detailed enough. The workshop manual I had for my old buell and ktm were much more informative.
I did mail them but the original work they did was years ago. I just wanted to strip down and see if there was anything obviously wrong before I loose ages waiting for someone else to do the work.
I was thinking they might point you in the right direction. Showa forks normally problem free so maybe something they've altered.
I pulled one of the forks out yesterday and partially stripped it. No obvious damage and the damper screw is working fine so there must be a problem with the valve. I'm waiting for a reply from maxton :-(
http://motardsardechois.free.fr/Page%20Futura%20Technique/RST%20chassis/Fork%20Servicing-entretien%20fourche%20AV%20en%20anglais.pdf A stripdown of Apriia forks same as.
After waiting for a reply from maxton with no joy I pulled the valve out, there are some small nicks out of the o-rings but no other signs of damage. I have ordered some new ones to try them out. Fingers crossed
That didn't work:-( Not really sure what to do now as all the components look ok and they seem to work until they are reassembled.
