Could anyone tell me, when gripping the rear shock/spring and 'twisting', how much play do you get? Can you rotate the shock at all or is it solid in place?? Cheers
Most springs will turn, it all depends how much tension/compression is applied to it. They are not fixed.
The bearing in the eyes of the shock are a bit like a rose joint and the shock should be able to rotate a bit. Depending on which model bike and which shock and which swingarm, it can vary as some shocks shouldn't be in the carbed ally swingarm ie the carbed version Sach Boge.....the Showa is the correct one. The carbed Sachs Boge shock is meant to be in the steel swingarm. The IE Sachs Boge (longer than the carbed one) may be alright in the ally swingarm, but it depends on the size of the eye........In general the Sachs Boge eye is larger than the Showa and that's why it hits the swingarm lugs. Best to stick it up on a rear paddock stand and twist the shock and then watch if the actual eye of the shock touches the swingarm lugs........it shouldn't. AL
Stew, I replaced the rubber seals in my shock and it feels quite stiff - I measured everything up and replaced with o rings not the square seals that where in as I could not find any. Before when one seal was missing it was a bit sloppy. I thought you asked about this in thread below. http://ducatiforum.co.uk/f4/showa-rear-shock-bush-mounts-15060/ Cheers Gaz
Supergrandad - Sorry, I should have been clearer, I meant the rotational play of the entire unit about the pivot points, not just the spring turning on the shock body. Al - I've read you're post in the past warning to look out for the shock contacting the lugs. My shock (original showa) doesn't. Gaz - I had a skim through that thread before posting and I hadn't actually seen anything on the play of a fully built and installed shock. It was just as I was about to stop tinkering I noticed the play. I think I could be worrying about nothing . . . Cheers for the replies guys.
The Showa shock eyes won't contact the lugs of an ally swingarm or a steel one because they are significantly smaller than the carbed SS Sachs shock eye.........I have both shocks and swingarms here.........and I found out about the OEM fitting of them via a Ducati handbook for the 900SS where it specifically shows the Showa in the ally swingarm and the Sachs in the steel one........It's somewhere in the threads mentioned. Wear can of course take place on the bush / bearing and the mounting bolt, but I would expect if this had happened, even the Showa eye would get very close or even touch the lugs. AL
Stew, See photos. I just put the shock back in the frame and swing arm and pivoted it around the pinch bolt (the bolts were not tight) and as Al says there should be no interference (showa shock). If you have both frame and swing arm pivots bolts installed you could not pivot so I guess thats not what you mean. Is it that you have either the frame or swing arm pivot installed and tightened up and then the shock will not pivot around the bolt. If so from the cross section sketch I did i would say the spherical bush is siezed if its hard to rotate. With the shock back out of the frame I can rotate the top hats which are pressed into the bushes using just a light finger grip. Hope this is what you mean, There is a bit of clearance between the bush bore and pinch bolt outside diameter if thats what you mean, when it was initially done up it was solid though. I think Al found some shims to pack out the side gap. One thing I plan to do is get some longer socket head cap screw and cut them down so there is more plain bolt shank inside the top hat bushes rather than the threaded part. Cheers Gaz
I used some very thin shims to one side of the lower eye (same diameter as the bush / bearing) for two reasons........one was to align the shock a bit better (just being a perfectionist) and the other was to make sure that the ally swingarm lugs weren't being stressed by closing the gap to the bush when the bolt was tightened up.
Right, I've just nipped out and had another look. Gaz, looking at your photo with the reservoir in view, when twisting the shock/unit around the centre line from the top to the bottom of the shock/unit, how close does the reservoir come to contacting the frame? Annoyingly, mine comes too close for comfort a couple of mm!? I suspect that I'm going to have to remove the unit and get the o-rings looked at. The bearing itself is fine and moves with a light touch but think I'm getting to much movement due to o-rings either being the wrong size or incorrectly installed. Will have a bash when I get the chance.
The O rings don't / shouldn't affect any movement of the shock.....they are dust / grease seals, that's all.....basically just under the top hat bush cover.....If they do affect it, they are fitted wrongly...There shouldn't be anything between the shock eye top hat bushes and the frame / swingarm lugs (although as I mentioned I used a couple of shims just to centralise it and close the gap a bit) My Showa is more or less the same as Gaz's in relation to the frame........ pretty close.......as you say, mm......but it can't actually hit the frame unless the bolt or bushes are worn very badly. I think you are worrying too much.... AL
Stew / AL, Can't check the shock now as bike is in bits. This is a photo pre-reno. The reservoir looks about 10mm from frame and if I put the shock in my frame at a similar distance and twist the shock get to about 5mm. I would say to check to make sure there is a seal / o ring under the top hat. When I did a reno on mine one was missing and this did make the shock rotate to one side easier. If there are no seals / o rings in the shock it will fall under its own weigh (as there is the cantilever mass of the reservoir) all be it away from the frame. In short I waggled mine and it is a bit sloppy but as long as there are seals in there I would say its will be OK. Another thing. I do plan to put another o ring on the outside between shock lug and frame lug - over the bit of top hat that sticks out to give a bit more weather protection. I think this would stop it twisting as well. But, I would check if there is enough flat portion left on the frame lug for this as the o ring might get squeezed out of the frame lug. I think AL had a problem with this as the sachs shock had bigger diameter top hats.
No point in putting an O ring between the eyes and the lugs.... ..Apart from the fact it will simply squeeze out fairly easily, for a few moments before it squeezes out, it prevents the shock eye which is articulated from rotating which it is supposed to do........... ....if you want to tighten the lugs to the top hat bushes so that the lugs don't bend in and get weakened by doing so, use shims the same diameter as the bushes. .......this applies to both Showa and Sachs shocks......of which I have both (the Showa is fitted currently).
