TOPIC:

Good Morning! I was going thru some early nub Z1 forks and came across this damper assembly. It's been a while since I've had the early style dampers in hand and cannot remember if this is correct or an aftermarket stack? From what I remember the early dampers were more crude. Early S&W, progressive perhaps? Last photo is of the later Z1 style and of course used the bigger cone. Anybody recognize these items?

Attached is a scan of the S&W data sheet that came with one of our '75 Z1's when we bought it in '89. The PO had installed it long before he sold it to us. We've never had the need to remove either of the S&W dampers, so we don't have first-hand experience of the details.
Reaching into the cobwebs of the mind, we seem to remember the OEM dampers on our earliest '72 Z1's having a split ring made of some sort of phenolic-like material that is not present on later dampers that were supposed to solve the "clunk" noise on sudden compression. Don't see that ring on your disassembled damper assy. either.

EDIT: Not sure the .pdf or .jpg attachments can be seen by all. KZRider.com is still returning a 403 error code unless we jump through a VPN hoop & use Opera browser for access. No one seems able to fix it. If you cannot see the scanned image attachments correctly, PM us with your email & we'll send it that way.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Those are not stock. And you do know those metal round spacers are put in for lowering the tubes. You can use 1"-2"-3" To lower the tubes in slider, like drag bikes do to lower front end. Coil springs need to be altered also. Nice stuff, put it to use.

Can't help with your question but thought I would follow up on what slmjim + Z1BEBE said. I was trying to figure out why my dampers didn't look like the Kawasaki parts fiche until he kindly sent me that pdf file. They were S&W dampers, installed along with S&W shocks. The springs were stock.

Thank-You all for the replies! From the PDF file is would seem i'm missing the rebound spring and some other spacers and light wound spring? The main springs were not stock that were removed, not straight wound, but the sliders were stock length.