rear shock washer placement 1978 gs1000

[angrypants]

hi all,

i've read a bit through various searches / posts but want some comfort from you gurus to go with my conclusions.... you may have noticed i think about things a lot and are rather cautious ha ha
Koni shocks just rebuilt/serviced by Ikon, they are correct type for the bike. The fiche shows an interesting mix of washers (pic below) , both in thickness and ID, and specific placement of each which i find interesting but obviously done that way for a purpose.

From what i understand the large ID's go inside to pad out the shock eye from the frame and are of a combined thickness so that there is / should be a little of the 'shoulder??' ( the larger diameter part of the mounting stud) protruding so when the smaller ID washers are put on and the dome nut tightened the shock eye is not clamped or has little clamp pressure - is that correct?

the reason i am asking is that with the correct washers my LHS shock needs to be pushed inward at the clevis end to get on the lower mounting, if only attached loose at the top mount it looks to not hang vertical.. splayed out a bit? it needs firm inward pressure to get lined up at the bottom mount. when getting them to meet the shock looks close to vertical. If i reduce the washer to only one, obviously less pushing is required. where as with the RHS shock the clevis will meet the lower mount with the correct 3 washers inside and shows just a tiny bit of the shoulder protruding / almost flush with the eye., which is the way i would think it should be


i note the advice is to have the washers arranged so the shocks are positioned as vertical as possible. So best fit would be no inside washers, but sense says i'd still need one washer inside, cant have that other little inner shoulder chewing the shock eye right? so if using one washer i get quite a lot of shoulder protruding out the eye and thus there is a lot of side movement, a little more than with of the missing washer ..2.25mm.

if the vertical alignment is of most importance, do i then use only one washer inside to do that, then put another larger ID washer on the outside against the eye, and then put on the smaller ID washer(s) that will catch the shoulder. this will stop / limit the eye getting great clamping pressure and limit the amount of side movement available to the eye ( fill that gap on the shoulder).

of course i have rack mounting there which will take the place of an outside washer, which i will need to get right so the dome nut doesn't bottom out

does that sound like the right approach? or do i just follow the fiche and whack the washers in as shown and feel OK about having to use a bit of pressure to push the clevis end in to meet the lower mount??

PS i am wondering if maybe the mounting stud is bent up a bit, making the lower shock end splay out...maybe i should measure the distance to the lower mounts RHS vs LHS ? (the PO was a fairly big man, 6'3 and maybe 290lbs, maybe it bent over time)
if i measure it and it is bent up a bit compared to the perfect fitting RHS mount , should i try and bend it back down with few taps from a hammer , or a bit of heat and a bar.over it ......or is that just dangerous and asking for trouble with the weld?

again sorry for the long post, i just have a lot of questions in my mind as i figure rear shocks are pretty important in terms of safety

thanks in advance

grant

 

[Gorminrider]

This is just my opinion in lieu of other opinions that seem rare....

IMO: The thing is, the shocks need to move slightly as the swing arm moves into deeper road irregularites...railroad tracks,potholes etc....you can make a drawing of the swing-arms arc versus straight shocks to see this.

The first clue is that the manual stresses the correct order of washers. The cap-nuts are the second clue that the washers and all are not clamped super-tight.

Straight alignment from the simpler lower shock mounts will help you set the shocks straight to the longer upper mounts which IMO is also important. Set up your big-small diameters accordingly on the upper mount... If you need to add-remove washers do it.You want your cap nuts set tight (but not too tight) before roughly checking the combined spacing of the washers you want...including the rack and Hand-grip.into not-bent positions if you can.

A bit of graphite-type non-seize on the stems and washer seems to work ok too.But you really want a lubricant that won't swell the rubber in the shock eyes so silicon brake lubricant would be a surer choice?

Of course, this assumes your shocks aren't bent and your swing arm is also correct.... The ride has somewhat improved for me especially in the railroad crossings and potholes. But, shocks like to be ridden and thereby warmed a bit too. Don't throw your old non-leaking shocks away without testing them first.

 

[angrypants]

This is just my opinion in lieu of other opinions that seem rare....

IMO: The thing is, the shocks need to move slightly as the swing arm moves into deeper road irregularites...railroad tracks,potholes etc....you can make a drawing of the swing-arms arc versus straight shocks to see this.

The first clue is that the manual stresses the correct order of washers. The cap-nuts are the second clue that the washers and all are not clamped super-tight.

Straight alignment from the simpler lower shock mounts will help you set the shocks straight to the longer upper mounts which IMO is also important. Set up your big-small diameters accordingly on the upper mount... If you need to add-remove washers do it.You want your cap nuts set tight (but not too tight) before roughly checking the combined spacing of the washers you want...including the rack and Hand-grip.into not-bent positions if you can.

A bit of graphite-type non-seize on the stems and washer seems to work ok too.But you really want a lubricant that won't swell the rubber in the shock eyes so silicon brake lubricant would be a surer choice?

Of course, this assumes your shocks aren't bent and your swing arm is also correct.... The ride has somewhat improved for me especially in the railroad crossings and potholes. But, shocks like to be ridden and thereby warmed a bit too. Don't throw your old non-leaking shocks away without testing them first.

thanks mate sounds like sound advice :encouragement: