changing rear shock

[tertel]

I cannot find my shop manual right now and am trying to change my rear shock on my 83 royale. Any thoughts on how to get to the upper mounting bolt?

And I got a shock thru the web but it doesn't seem to have the spring on it that my bike has, does this mean I got the wrong shock or just that I need to change out the spring too? And if so how do I do that. I know those things are loaded pretty heavily on most cars i have worked on.

Thanks for your help.

[mralex714]

I cannot find my shop manual right now and am trying to change my rear shock on my 83 royale. Any thoughts on how to get to the upper mounting bolt?

And I got a shock thru the web but it doesn't seem to have the spring on it that my bike has, does this mean I got the wrong shock or just that I need to change out the spring too? And if so how do I do that. I know those things are loaded pretty heavily on most cars i have worked on.

Thanks for your help.

 

I think you got a rear shock from a non Royale they were air suspension. I don't think you can remove the spring.

[Prairiehammer]

I think you got a rear shock from a non Royale they were air suspension. I don't think you can remove the spring.

 

All Ventures came with an air shock. The Royales just added an on board compressor and controller.

[frankd]

I also seem to remember that (at least on 83's) that the standard Ventures had a spring on the rear shock, in addition to the air bladder. I think the Royale's only had air.

 

I don't remember what I went through to remove the rear shock when I changed my 83's frame. I'm sure I did it after I took a lot of other stuff off so it was no problem.

 

However, I did change the rear shock on my 89. Now I can't promise that Mk I and Mk II's are done the same, because the rear suspension is slightly different but.....

 

Remove the seat and disconnect the air line on the right side about where passenger would sit. Then use electrical tape to attach a rope to the hose going forward. When you pull the rear shock out, the rope will pull in, and then when you re-install the shock you can pull the rope and the air line will follow the same route that it originally was.

 

Unbolt the suspension linkage on the bottom of the shock.

 

Remove the 2 phillips screws that hold the damping adjustment knob in place.

 

I had my son's help when I pulled the top bolt. Mine had the bolt head on the left side, and the nut on the right. I think that both the bolt head and nut require a 17MM socket. I used a long extension with a shallow socket on the left side to hold the bolt stationary. Then my son used another long extension with another socket (I think he also used a universal joint) to remove the nut. Remove the socket from the bolt and then push the bolt out. The shock will come out the bottom, and as I said earlier, the rope attached to the air line will follow the hose. Disconnect the rope, and attach it to the rope.

[greg_in_london]

I must admit that I thought that I undid the air hose from the shock absorber itself, so there was no threading to be done. Overall access isn't too bad, except for that top bolt, which I found was murder to put the nut back onto when I reinstalled it. What was major trouble for me was getting the top bolt out as it had rusted in and a hammer and drift couldn't shift it. I ended up using a rotary hammer drill and Hilti bit to drive the blessed thing out - hopefully you won't experience that !

[Prairiehammer]

I also seem to remember that (at least on 83's) that the standard Ventures had a spring on the rear shock, in addition to the air bladder. I think the Royale's only had air.

 

All Ventures had a spring and all had an air bladder. The earlier Venture shocks had a rubber shroud covering the spring.