Rear shock covered in oil

[Lennie]

Hello,

I went to the garage to do some work to my bike (2004 WR450) and noticed a puddle of oil about 6 inch (15cm) diameter under it just infront of the rear wheel. It appears to be coming from the rear shock? I assume the rear shock is blown and has leaked out a load of oil? I have a fairly good knowledge of forks but have never done any work to a rear shock before.

Has anybody ever heard of this problem before and what would you recomend to fix it? Rebuild it, second hand shock? Any decnet upgrades while im at it?

Cheers

Lennie.

[WR_Dave]

Rear shocks are just as rebuildable as the forks except for the nitrogen refill they need. The Yamaha manual should help. Just make sure you are checking for what caused the shock to leak. WR Dave.

[Frostbite]

Hello,

I went to the garage to do some work to my bike (2004 WR450) and noticed a puddle of oil about 6 inch (15cm) diameter under it just infront of the rear wheel. It appears to be coming from the rear shock? I assume the rear shock is blown and has leaked out a load of oil? I have a fairly good knowledge of forks but have never done any work to a rear shock before.

Has anybody ever heard of this problem before and what would you recomend to fix it? Rebuild it, second hand shock? Any decnet upgrades while im at it?

Cheers

Lennie.

I broke my rear shock and had it rebuilt by a suspension shop. The price on the brand new factory shock was scary, so these guys rebuilt it for me for 1/4 the cost of a new one, and they revalved it for my weight while they were in there.

The rear shock is about the only component on my bike that I am reluctant to tackle myself. I rebuilt the rear shock on my roadracer years ago and nearly blew my head off. I think there are still a few pieces of the plastic bushings in orbit. ?

[Lennie]

Doesnt sound like a DIY job then, im not bothered about the difficulty of taking anything apart but i dont want to have a shock explode in my face.

Thanks for the info.

[Frostbite]

Doesnt sound like a DIY job then, im not bothered about the difficulty of taking anything apart but i dont want to have a shock explode in my face.

Thanks for the info.

I guess I should qualify my last remark, the explosion was my own fault. The roadrace shock had to be forced apart by "hydraulic pressure." I didn't have any type of hydraulic pressure, but did have air pressure, and thought "what's the difference". There's a big difference. Hydraulic pressure instantly drops when the shock starts to open up a tiny bit, so you have to pump in a bit more pressure. Air pressure doesn't drop (much) so once the shock started to open up, it opened up in a hurry.

I honestly don't know what's involved in taking apart the rear shock on the WR.

[Lennie]

I honestly don't know what's involved in taking apart the rear shock on the WR.

Neither do I and i cant find any decent info anywhere to help me do the job. I can get it done for $120-200 / £60-100 so i am just going to pay to have it done.

[msgbean]

Lennie as long as you release the nitrogen pressure before you do anything nothing can go wrong. I'ts actually easier than you might think. I installed gold valves in my forks and shock and it came with videos that were great. Race Tech will sell the video for $20 at http://www.racetech.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=15&subcat=81&cat=Technical+Edge+Video+Series&showPage=dirt

After 3 years mine also started leaking so I thought it needed a new seal (which yours might need) so I dug out the video, disassembled the shock and cleaned everything, put in new oil and after a year it hasn't leaked again with the same seal.

[new2blu]

Doesnt sound like a DIY job then, im not bothered about the difficulty of taking anything apart but i dont want to have a shock explode in my face.

Thanks for the info.

It won't explode if you bleed off the nitrogen in the shock via the schrader valve. I did mine (oil change) in my garage and took it to a shop to re-fill the nitrogen.