Rear shock removal -- going to kill myself?

[Anonymous]

I want to pull the rear shocks off my GS 450E as they coil springs are rusty. I have a friend with a sandblaster who's offering to help me clean them up. I'll give them a coat of black spraypaint after that.

Of course, I'll need to remove the springs from the shock unit to do this. Just looking at it, I foresee the spring rocketing off and smashing me in the face or something. :roll:

Anyone who's stripped down their rear shocks: If you can share a proven technique that will make it easy on someone like me who just has a Craftsman tool set, but no speciality tools, it would be much appreciated!

Now getting the springs back ON again, hmmm... 8O

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are now in the market for a spring compressor. I believe Motion Pro sells them. They are not cheap! You might want to take the shocks to a bike shop that already has this tool as you are likely to pay more for the tool than your shocks are worth. If they were Progressive shocks, and you wanted to buy new springs, Progressive will swap the springs for you at no cost if you send in the shocks for this service.

 

[gspaul]

A good sized G clamp, and a couple of pieces of sheet steel(5-6mm) with a slot cut in them a little larger than the dia of the spring material . use cloth or rubber to prevent scratches.

 

[Jethro]

I use 6 pieces of galvanized sheet steel that you can get at a hardware store, they are about 4" long and have big holes in each end, they are made to accept those big lag bolts with the round head. Get three of those bolts, about 8" long and some nuts and washers. You could cover the steel with tape or something, but I don't. It's not exactly the easiest thing to use, but for the amount of use it gets, it works.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are now in the market for a spring compressor. I believe Motion Pro sells them. They are not cheap! You might want to take the shocks to a bike shop that already has this tool as you are likely to pay more for the tool than your shocks are worth. If they were Progressive shocks, and you wanted to buy new springs, Progressive will swap the springs for you at no cost if you send in the shocks for this service.

Naw, I believe these are stock units. They operate well, but they look bad. After looking at the price for Progressive shocks ($230 and up) I thought it would be worth a shot to clean up the current shocks. Next year I want to do a fork rebuild/rear shock replacement. This is just to keep her from looking like such a rat 'til then.

I will probably take them to a shop to be disassembled once I get them off the bike. I can't imagine it costs too much to do that!

 

[KGB]

I use 6 pieces of galvanized sheet steel that you can get at a hardware store, they are about 4" long and have big holes in each end, they are made to accept those big lag bolts with the round head. Get three of those bolts, about 8" long and some nuts and washers. You could cover the steel with tape or something, but I don't. It's not exactly the easiest thing to use, but for the amount of use it gets, it works.

And some heavy zip ties to keep them compressed when removing/reinstalling. Loop the zip ties thru a few of the springs coils will
help it from landing in the neighbors pool. It will launch like a rocket.
Wear your helmet

 

[frosty5011]

2 of these will do the trick for compressing the springs too.

 

[jimcor]

After looking at the price for Progressive shocks ($230 and up) I thought it would be worth a shot to clean up the current shocks.

Naw, Progressive schocks are $124 and chrome springs are $72, black springs are $58 for series 4 oem type from DK.