Hi peeps. Leaky Showa fork seals on my 1996 900SS. I thought I’d spend some hours this weekend stripping, replacing seals and fork oil and ticking one more thing off the list on her journey back to glory after not been ridden for over 6 years. Both forks came apart and back together fairly easy and straight forward, but one fork seems to have no dampening. It’s just a springy spring. I’m pretty ok with basic tasks like this, but I don’t know where to start, other than swapping parts, handing over to a workshop or (heaven forbid) buying complete replacements. Can anyone suggest a starting point, or maybe you’ve experienced similar and have a solution. ...here’s hoping.
Hi peeps. Leaky Showa fork seals on my 1996 900SS. I thought I’d spend some hours this weekend stripping, replacing seals and fork oil and ticking one more thing off the list on her journey back to glory after not been ridden for over 6 years. Both forks came apart and back together fairly easy and straight forward, but one fork seems to have no dampening. It’s just a springy spring. I’m pretty ok with basic tasks like this, but I don’t know where to start, other than swapping parts, handing over to a workshop or (heaven forbid) buying complete replacements. Can anyone suggest a starting point, or maybe you’ve experienced similar and have a solution. ...here’s hoping.
The Showa forks are both fully adjustable. You need to match preload, compression and rebound dampening on both forks, so I would make a fair assumption that isn’t the case with mine. Thanks for The reply.
Thanks for the reply. Apologies, I’m new to this. It didn’t mention anything in the guides about lining up any needle. Is this the needle in the bottom of the forks? Where all the rebound adjustment is? Cheers
No way of knowing g because the bike came to me having not been used in a long time. There was barely any oil in the forks, so they weren’t operating correctly. But could just be down to no oil.
Yes, I popped it in technical help, but then posted in Supersport. ...is that frowned upon? Sorry. I don’t use forums very often.
If the Showas have an adjuster at the top and one at the bottom, the top one is for rebound damping and the bottom one is for compression damping. When you take the forks apart, the adjuster screws should turned out fully otherwise the control needles in each adjuster can easily be buggered up.
Do thy adjusters in both? Pretty sure someone in DD days used to have adjustable set that only had adjusters in one as factory fit, although looks like both. As said on other thread, not sure if marz or Showa.
Both adjusters were turned out completely prior to dismantling them. As it says in the Haynes manual. But I’ve since adjusted them to ‘standard’ settings to see if that made any difference to the amount of dampening.
Early 900s had fully adjustables - two screws (as did some 750s) - IIRC the later Showas only had one adjuster screw. Marzocchis fitted generally to 750s and 600s had no adjustment other than pre-load - the did compression damping in one leg and rebound in the other. I fitted 1993 Fully adjustable Showas to my '97 750. So the OP might have early or later ones. Factory settings should be 4 clicks out (top screw) and 6 clicks out (bottom screw). Factory pre-load 18mm. Can be adjusted to between 10mm and 25mm.
Hey Jonathan, when you put the new oil in did you prime the damper by pumping the damper rod up and down a few times? It takes a few good full stroke pumps to prime them, you'll feel the damping as the oil get in. Just a thought......
A great thought. Yeah, I pumped and pumped. Manual says at least 10, so I stopped counting at ten, but carried on until there was a smooth flow with no bubbles. ☹️
How do you know one isn't working? With oil in it, that alone adds resistance more than a simple spring.
They are both still off the bike. I’ve set them both to the same dampening and preload and (it’s not very technical but) bounced up and down on each one in turn. One is dampening as I would expect, the other just bounces on the spring with no resistance from the dampener on compression or rebound.
from the oil? Same about in both leg? Just that when I have done them (non adjustable ones) once the oil is in and air gap set you can't really compress them that much even sticking a fat belly on them
