New Rear Shocks Recommendations?

Before I get started, hope everyone had a Happy Resurrection day.

It waasn't pretty, but they are installed.

Who knew a 1/2" could make such a difference? I won some Harley shocks off E-bay. A $15.00 bargain for the pair, or it's what I started out thinking, anyway. Now I'm not so sure.

Grinding the lower mount about 4 mm was not really a problem. I kind of expected fit issues. But I'll get to the real issue in a second. First the good news.

ACE hardware sells a steel spacer that removes the lower eye clearance from the mounting hole. Use the spacer, and you can use the existing bushing with the pre-existing bolt without modification.

The bad news quickly followed. The upper eye has a bushing that won't fit over the mount on the 650. The steel part has to come out. The stock shocks don't use a steel insert, so losing the one out of the Harley shock doesn't concern me. Using a 1/2" drill bit MIGHT get it hot enough to allow it to be pushed out after awhile. MAYBE.

Now for the part that made me sad. I didn't know a 13.5 shock is going to maybe be too long. The swingarm axle now contacts my stock exhaust while the bike is on the side or center stand. I had to use two hose clamps to compress the first shock enough to draw the shock length down to mount the first one. I left the clamps on long enough to mount the second shock. So I think easy tire changes are now out of the picture for the time being. The shocks are statically under compression all the time, and since I have already gone grinder crazy and etc., they now belong to me. Kinda wished someone here on the board had said "WARNING, WARNING, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER AHEAD!" After it looks like ###'s of people viewed the original post where I listed the description, seems someone who has done this thing might have written in and said something to inform me. It might have kept me from having to make some other detour as I trudge the road to arrive at happy destiny. Here's a chance to redeem yourself, if you are out there. I'd even be interested in seeing what our resident suspension expert Vipex has to say.

What I am thinking of doing at this point is taking a die grainder and cutting out enoough of the spring to lower the installed height of the shock to 12.75" eye-to-eye center. This means the shock will have free motion / no spring interaction for its last .75" of available travel. That's the part that is causing problems, smashing the exhaust and preventing me from getting access to the axlenut. When you first sit on the bike, it is compressed off the stops, so my thinking is that cutting the spring a little will allow me access to the axle when it's time to change a tire. I'd rather not have to install a kerker or something to escape the woods on this problem. And because this is/was supposed to be a suspension upgrade, I'd rather not reinstall the 29-year-old, 45,000 mile springy thingies that just came off.

Today will be a chance to ride in warm enough weather.
Prior to comtemplated surgery.

----

I agree with H1 on this. I would NOT try to lower the shock length by grinding the springs. That will do nothing to reduce your range of travel, unless you take so much off t hat you have no preload for the first .75", and that would be a terribly unstable result.

If I were you, to eliminate the interference with the exhaust, I would adjust the muffler hanger to mount the muffler out of the way of whatever it is hitting when the suspension is as full extension. (Is the mufler hitting the swingarm? If so, your mufflers are mounted too close to the bike -- they should be flared out slightly, so there is not any interference, and the swingarm passes between the two mufflers.) The muffler can be moved out a fair bit without causing any exhaust system issues, and will look just as good either way. As for your axle nut, I always need to disconnect the muffler mount bolt to flex the muffler out of the way to remove the axle nut. This is not a big deal either, and only takes a minute extra.

I have been running sportster shocks on both my operating KZ750s for a total of more than 20,000 miles. They have been problem free, and result in a far better suspension than the old worn out original shocks, and they look decent too.

I just mounted Sportster shocks on my 650 a few weeks ago. I used a vice and some sockets to swap the bushings. The new shocks are .25" longer eye to eye but that hasn't caused any issues on my bike. And the ride quality is soooo much better.

I tried to swap bushings from the 650 shocks into Sporty shocks and they were very wobbly once installed, because the 650 bushings were a smaller . than the shock eye's . And the stock Sporty bushings had a metal sleeve in the top eye that would not fit over the mounting bolt. I had to pass on installing them on the 650.
But they are perfect fit on the 750 LTD!

Put UK Hagons on my J. Fitted straight on

H1Vindicator wrote:

The swingarm axle? Do you mean the rear axle?
. . . This is the first time that I know of that anyone's mentioned the exhaust pipe fitment prob . . .

apeman wrote:

. . .I would NOT try to lower the shock length by grinding the springs. That will do nothing to reduce your range of travel, unless you take so much off that you have no preload for the first .75", and that would be a terribly unstable result.

If I were you, to eliminate the interference with the exhaust, I would adjust the muffler hanger to mount the muffler out of the way . . . your mufflers are mounted too close to the bike . . . As for your axle nut, I always need to disconnect the muffler mount bolt to flex the muffler out of the way to remove the axle nut. . .

I appreciate the information. . .I had a chance to look at what I wrote about this, and H1, it is the rear axle. . .in looking at my post, I meant the wheel axle but said "swingarm". . .

I realize after reading what you both wrote, that the problem is probably with my bike. I've crashed down both sides of the machine, and done a pretty good job of gravel polishing both exhaust cans, so they are probably pushed in closer than they are supposed to be. Still trying to find a 1-4, 2-3 replacement, but until I do, what's a few more scars where bending and reforming is the next step.

I had a chance to try them out last night with the second person on the back, and what an improvement. . .

The other side of this is that I didn't measure what I had in the first place accurately. What came off were 13" eye-to-eye center. The replacements are 13.5." But even so, while on the machine, there is some compression that keeps the swingarm / shocks off the mufflers. I'm not going to be snippysnipping anything.

premature angst

:lol:

Well, just as I suspected. . .

These bikes don't take well to crashdowns.

:lol:

I went back and looked very carefully at the exhaust cans (mufflers), and specifically at the mounting brackets where they connect to the rear pegs, and both of them (especially the left one) were bent in, allowing the mufflers too close to the swingarm.

Between the big screwdriver, prybar, half-inch breaker bar, and galvenized pipe, I was able to obtain enough clearance to allow the swingarm full travel through the mufflers, now that there is an appropriate gap. (Big hat tip to Apeman) Wished I'd known about the lackagap last week, before I got so frustrated trying to squeeze these new shocks onto mounting points that were too close together because of the pushed in can interference. Looks like I'll be able to disconnect the shocks at the bottom to be able to bring the axle up for clearance for tire changes now, too.

I guess no-one ever mentioned the clearance problem because it's normally not an issue. No-one before me has crashed so consistently. I'm an equal-opportunity crasher. I do it equally well on either side . . . comes from being bipolar.

:woohoo:

I doubt I'd ever gotten as much fun out of this KZ as I do without the help of all y'all (a Georgia-ism, ask Duck or Jimatmilkyway what it means).

:side:

I have a 79 KZ650 w/ Goldwing airshocks on it. Rides like a cloud unless you air them up! You will fly off on a decent bump! They just bolted right on, no problemo.

Colin, for what it is worth I put a set of shocks off a 500 Vulcan on my 77 650 C1. They look stock, bolt right on and since they are a little shorter, they give it a lower seat height as well as making the entire bike look more aggressive when sitting still. I think I paid $29.00 for a nice set including shipping on Ebay.