Ok, I got mail today, two pieces actually. One was a yellow front disk guard for my buddies DRZ400S (Christmas Present) and the other was a shock of of an '05 DRZ400SM.

I already have a swing-arm and linkage that I bought off Ebay, so I grabbed DRZ shock, and the DR linkage. I slid out the sleeve that the bearing rides on, popped the seals off and pressed out the bearing. Grabbed a vernier and started measuring.

The clevis on the DRZ shock has and ID of 22mm. The bearing sleeve for the DR has a length of 30mm and an OD of 17mm (if memory serves, my buddy has it or I'd verify). The bearing is 20mm wide with an OD of 24mm . When you slide the bearing on the sleeve and pop a seal on either it comes to about 27.5mm wide.

I can order a bearing that has the same ID and OD as the OEM one but is 5mm narrower at 15mm (3 on order $6.95 ea). The DR linkage itself without seals is wider than the clevis from the DRZ shock (can't remember what is was:bonk:)

So, my buddy is going to mill the sleeve and the linkage down to slide into the clevis of the shock. The linkage must be a bit narrower than the sleeve as the seals must be installed on either side.

Now there is still going to be a bit of an interference fit, as the new 15mm bearing plus the two seals will exceed 22mm, by about .5mm. However, when examining the seals, while the outside of the seal has a steel outside, the inside part that presses against the bearing is rubber and can easily be compressed a bit.

My only concern is that the seals will be pushed out a bit, allowing crap to enter the bearing (which is why I ordered three!). I can, very carefully trim the inside of the seal where it touched the side of the bearing to reduce the overall width of the seal-bearing-seal assembly. An area which appears to not have any sealing function at that point.

I'll take photos of the final pieces before assembly. Guess I should have named this "DR linkage mod for DRZ shock"

Hi. I`ve got a dumb Question.
Is it at all possible to swap the clevis from the DR shock to the DRZ shock?
From looking at them and looking at pictures it seems that the DR clevis might only need a tap run through it to fit the larger DRZ shock shaft.
But I could be talking through a hole in my ar$e.

I'm quite interested to see how it comes out!
DRZ shocks may become a hot item on ebay!

Spannermad said:

Not a dumb question at all, it was my first thought too.

The rebound adjuster on the DRZ shock is located on (in?) the lower clevis. I've done a bit of research on the DRZ shock and quite a few have been damaged by the removal of the lower clevis. There is a small-diameter rod that extends up the shaft of the shock that either breaks or comes shooting out.

There was one on Ebay and the seller said he broke the rod trying to take it apart. I had the spring off mine today playing with the compression and rebound adjusters (kinda cool I have to say!) and was looking at the lower clevis and thinking 'doesen't look hard at all...' but I'm not messing with it. Took me too long to win one and I'm not about to chance screwing it up. If it needs to be rebuilt I'll bite the bullet and pay.

Where the clevis mounts to the linkage there looks to be enough material to take a couple millimeters off the inside dimension too, but I thought that it was better to maintain the strength of the clevis and go with a narrower bearing if I could. (a trip to a supplier answered the question) I'm not real happy with losing 5mm of needle bearing surface but on the other hand I'm not landing the big girl off of huge jumps. Well, not yet anyway I'll need to call Jesse soon for the front before I do that. I bottomed the front out trying a stoppie on the bike.

EDIT:

Here's one of the threads I looked at, this is the one with the improper clevis removal. When you scroll down you'll see the rebound adjuster on the clevis. There is some good info in this one too: It's where I learned how to take the spring off.

http://www.thumperta...ht=broken+shock

Icelander-DR650 said:

too many beers?

I know the forks are soft but.......how much do you weigh?

I got some progressive springs from Jeff at procycle & they made a pretty good difference.

I'm about 175-180, maybe pushing 200 with gear. My buddy was doing them on his DRZ so I thought I'd give it a go. I loaded the front end then mashed the lever as hard as I could and there was a nice 'clunk' as they bottomed out. My buddy yelled "what the hell was that?" over at me. Was the last time I ever tried it.

Icelander-DR650 said:

guess I better try it next time I'm out. I'm kinda a ***** when it comes to stoppies after I almost flipped my R1.
I need to get over it, it's a whole new game on this thing!

P.S. I weigh 175-180.

BSR-1 said:

I just noticed that the site automatically edits your posts with ****.
I was just talking about my cat!

BSR-1 said:

That is too funny!!!

My buddy Petr (yes proper spelling, from the Czech Republic) managed to work his magic on the linkage this morning. We met a Tim's for coffee (Tim Horton's) with our other riding buddy and he showed/explained what he had done in order to get the right fit and keep everything centered. (Petr is a perfectionist when it comes to any sort of machining, he spent two hours setting up and milling out the three depressed slots in the counter shaft sprocket cover on his DRZ. However, it looks...perfect)

I've got the parts in hand, sans bearings. everything slides together smoothly, was properly deburred and radiused (sp?). Photo's were taken and he's got some advice for others that want to do this. I'll have to post them up later as he's got them on his camera and will email them to me when he gets a minute.

wow!
that was almost too easy. is he available for house calls?

Can you post the outside dimension of the DRZ clevis??

Also the spring dimensions if possible a lot of us already have heavier 2.5 ID springs adapted to ours, hopefully they will fit on the DRZ shock?

BSR-1 said:

I think he was so excited and wound up about the front disk guard that he had bike-part-fever. He's been looking for one since the middle of summer without luck. Even aftermarket bike part stores couldn't find one for him. I tracked a company down in the U.K. that has them and ordered him one. His wife said he'd probably be sleeping with it rather than her.

He's not always so quick, he makes mirror extensions that add 6cm (2.3") to the mirror shaft out of round aluminum that looks like OEM pieces. Lets you see more than your elbows. I'd been waiting since SPRING for him to make me a set. Got them two days ago for Christmas

wow, your buddy Petr must be very good.

woodsryder said:

The outside of the DRZ clevis is 38.5mm (1.516"), the ID of the spring is 66.5mm (2.618"), the OD of the spring is 90mm (3.54"), and the free length on the spring I have is 262mm (10.315")

Looks to me like the springs you guys have will be fine, the upper spring mount that slips inside the spring has a diameter of 65.6mm (2.5855"). The spring I have actually gets stuck on it and has to be gently pried off. The bottom mount, which is the two piece and snap ring one has a diameter of 63.06mm (2.485")

petr_drz_400 said:

Yep, he's an amazing guy. He's one of those funny, generous, do-anything-for-ya type of person. He does have one shortcoming though...he can't wheelie worth a damn

So I was over at Petr's tonight and uploaded the photo's to photobucket.

This is the shock and linkage when I dropped it off at Petr's.




The linkage about to be milled. Notice the shoulder where the seal and bearing get inserted? It won't be there long.



The bushing about to get ground down to size.



Petr does the first trial fit at work...always the consummate professional.



The photo is a bit blurry but you can see how much needed to be milled off the linkage to fit inside the DRZ clevis.



The clevis, bushing, seals, and bolt in position. The fit is so close you'd almost think Petr did this for a living.



All the pieces except for the bearing.



So there you go guys, soon as the bearings come in, either Monday or Tuesday, I'll press one into the linkage and assemble the shock and linkage, torquing it to spec to see how it moves.

wish I had a Petr!
did I just say that out loud?

awesome work! can't wait to see how good it works!

BSR-1 said:

I'll let you know as soon as I can...and as you said earlier... "DRZ shocks may become a hot item on ebay"

what year did they go to better shocks? or are they all the same?

might want to beat the rush!