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cheers buddy, any help is always good, its appreciated, whats your plans with your shock? is it worth blackening the nut as if your going to send it in for service, they will strip the clevis of for cleaning and prolly mark the nut back up assembling
I was just seeing if using a paintbrush with this fluid rather than submerging it would work ok. Looks like it does. I'm going to gas it up next to see if the reason it's not returning is low gas pressure.
Just starting to polish this with various grades of wet n dry after grinding all the crap off.
if its not returning ie extending the damper fully, its usually not blead or its had a leaking seal on the head and let oil out ive found if you don't have nitrogen to check, just use a bike pump and take it as close to 140 as you can,its a shame you are the other end of the country as ive got my own n2 kit at least it will give you piece of mind its good but after all the top work you have done, its worth breaking it down and putting a bladder and seal head in due to its age buddy,
To be honest I have a sneaking feeling that the gas has been let out. The shock has zero oil leaks, the chrome is perfect, I've got good resistance lifting the damper and there's gas pressure. I got a blast of it when i pressed the valve. I've got the old Suzuki fork pressure gauge in a box and i know the valves are the same, so I may just test the reservoir pressure with it to see where I'm at if i can. If the pressure is through the floor I'll pop it round the bike shop and gas it up. The hose is rather tatty and needs replacing really, I've been waiting for a NOS hose to turn up for 12 months now. If I do manage to get a hose I'll get the whole thing serviced. In the meantime if it is the gas I'll just pretty it up for now. I'm in no rush really mate.
The Shop
ive never done a shock that old, i've done tons from early 90s upwards but none with the pipe and reservoir separate as far as i know and found, all schraders are the same size on the mx stuff, ie kyb and showa, if you pressed it just to hear a noise, ive found that can drop as much as 30 psi from the bladder,(im old myself and like to test) as its only small buddy, id pump up with a bike pump, and see if its extending fully, it will give you piece of mind, ive just done a shock for my 2003 yz 125 ive owned from new, coming on here amazes me what some guys can do with really old stuff like yours,
I have a lead on a bunch of parts , which i cant pull the pin on right now , PM me if you want details .
Your shock looks very nice mate, the attention to detail is 1st class. Did you powder coat the spring or replace it?
its neither bud, that spring is my original, its a 4.5nm steel, i cerakoted black then armour clear over the top, i personally hate powder coating,
I don't like powder coating either. I've been contemplating painting my spring myself. Almost everything I do is painted by hand. I may make a start with the rotary tool and grind it all off.
i had my original hubs and spring done by a well known wheel guy in the midlands, and i really didn't like at all, took about 6 months for them to look like trash, i weighed them before and after and there was 150 gram of powder on the front and 190 on the rear, so i've done my own coating since, im lucky my bikes modern compared to yours so i can get away with coating everything i just used nitromors paint stripper to remove the powder,
Yes I used paint and lacquer, gives a far better finish and its more detailed. I've been building 4 x 80's Raleigh burner BMX bikes for the grandkids. The forks, bars etc are all hand painted and lacquered. I ground off the powder coating from one set of bars and they looked relatively OK until I got to the metal. The rust had got in under the paint and was working it's way around. You can't tell until the tube snaps. That's why this RM frame is being enamelled. Once the rust starts you cant see it. I buy that much paint they think I'm fkn Banksy lol 😂
rally burner lol, flip me ya bringing back memories buddy,i rattled canned my frame with pj1 about 5 years ago so feel your pain on paint cost, and it was cheaper then tbh, its held up well and much better than i expected, i bought a little blast box and a small oven for coating a few years ago after sending stuff out to be disappointed after,
I enjoy bringing old things back to life.
After drilling the old screwdriver and hammer got these screws moving. Thank God for that. Bearing is now out so one more to go on the right hand casing and I can clean n prep these casings ready for paint.
Bearings are out at last. I purchased new screws for the retainer clips. It's a good job because they're chewed up to hell.
I've decided to restore the shock absorber spring. I've got the black enamel gloss spray paint so after I've taken this down to the metal I'll paint it up.
Hi Andy, I've got a reply back from the plating guy.
Regards Gaz
Hi,
Unfortunately I can't make the photos larger so its hard to see what is happening.
Here are some common reasons for rough, peeling or pitting plating.
First thing is to make sure all of the old plating is removed and the parts are back to bare steel.
If you over plate zinc or chorme plating you will have lots of problems!
Second is to make sure that the steel is ultra clean, this is critical to good plating so check that it passes a water break test through both the alkaline cleaner step and after the dry acid activation step.
Do not over pickle/activate the parts in the dry acid salt solution, stick to the timings in the guide. If you dip for too long you will get smutting which will lead to blistering and peeling.
Finally make sure that when you plate you are at the correct temperature and have lots of agitation going.
If you have lots of tiny gas pits then high agitation or giving the parts a shake in the plating tank every few minutes will release the tiny bubbles. You can also add more wetter to stop it from happening, we do stock this if it needed. It is added to the brightener that is included but very occasionally extra may be needed.
Finally I would recommend doing a copper pipe test. This will rule out any pre cleaning and prep issues.
Get a piece of 15mm copper water pipe that is 50mm long, sand it with fine wet and dry paper until shiny, rinse and plate at 0.3 amps for 30 minutes. Make sure that you have good agitation or keep shaking the part in the tank while plating. You should get a very smooth finish with no pitting or peeling.
Like all plating if you are plating onto a rough metal surface you will not get a mirror finish, so if you are needing a mirror finish then polish the metal to a good shine before plating.
Kind regards
Dan
After a good soak in paint stripper which removed years of layers of paint by simply working it around with a stiff brush, I then used concentrated soapy water to soak and clean the casing of stripper and old paint. Once dry I used my drill with wire wheel to gently remove the remaining paint. As you can see it's coming off nicely.
Pit Row
cheers gaz, it was the same instructions as the kit i have, i have heaters, air pump, etc, i first clean using a high temp ultra sonic cleaner with degreaser and i run the water break test to make sure its clean, ill grab some new pickle and grab the kit back out, i did the copper pipe test when it was bought and it come out nice and shiny as i have the bright nickel kit, i've had no issues with peeling, or anything, its just not as good as a finish as i would of liked myself, the last ones i did were the engine case bolts, i think im just goin to get a titanium set ill try again soon as the new pickle arrives,
Holy crap Andy that's a work of art lol. Can't you get NOS or genuine replacement bolts?
I'm replacing every nut, bolt and washer with OEM or NOS part numbered parts. The parts I can't get I'm having to clean up and plate them, hence the plating kit.
Shortly after talking about restoring my spring, a NOS standard spring showed up from Crooks Suzuki.
If its still on next week I'm grabbing it lol.
That spring has been on and off for a while.. its a soft one so not much use to anyone.
Just inside the stator and a few hard to reach places now. I'll use my thread brushes and rotary tool for those. Need to fit a new cylinder mounting bolt and wet n dry away the remains of the gasket and then its paint time. The right casing isn't that hard really, most is basically flat and the clutch cover shouldn't be a problem.
It's a NOS standard shock spring Phil. Just cost me £92.
A £92 NOS spring has just saved me a headache worth £500.
The NOS adjuster cover fits ok. I'll be doing some test painting on the shock sometime tomorrow after a little bit of prep work filing down the edges of the reservoir, removing the small chips.
I'll be buying a new set of mounting bolts, nuts, washers etc for the shock with my last parts order.
its far from a work of art buddy, its never gonna be a show pony, after 20 years of racing it, ive replaced most of the original bike with aftermarket or upgrades, i just wanted to redo the oem ones to keep some original parts and yes, i can prolly get new oem bolts but its just not worth it, the originals after 12 months looked like they were 20 year old, i sell the steel bolt hardware kits and sell titanium, so i have choices on where i go, that spring will save you a lot of time, and at least you know it will be full length as they soon loose a few mill over the years,
nice, i wondered what a rotary tool was lol, always just known as a dremel, i use the stainless steel small wheels and the small stand ones, along with the small felt wheels and good old auto sol, you can bring stuff up nice and clean looking, i did a set of cases for a friend of mine last year with the wheels, come up ok
,
Cracked the engine for the first time. Its dryer than a camels back. The clutch cover has a wonderful crack in it just to the side of the kick-start shaft. It's been sealed on the inside but the outside looks a right mess.
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