Although the Yamaha OE shock still has damping and isn't leaking, it's noticeably sagged and had run out of preload adjustment during my short Shropshire / mid-Wales holiday ride with t'other half. I suspect that's down to the relatively thin spring. I didn't put the two shocks side by side unfortunately since I was in a bit of a rush to finish the job by the time I finally got the old one out but in the photos, the YSS definitely looks heavier. The entire shock seems weightier too.
Anyway as the XJ is a straight push system, what could be simpler than whipping out two bolts, pulling the old shock out and popping the new one in, then replacing the bolts? The same job only took half an hour on the old GS500 and that had a proper rising rate rear end!
Ha.
Of course, everything on modern bikes is built from the middle out and everything outside the shock appears to have been put in place AFTER the shock went in on the production line.
First, it's off with the tiny side panels. On the left, it's out with the bolt, then carefully slide it off from two rubber push-on mounts - you just give it a careful tug. The right one? A bolt, a slide-off rubber mount top rear and the bottom front mount can't be accessed nor even seen. It seemed reasonable to assume it was the same as on the other side and would also pop off. Hmm. It's a bit stiff. SNAP. Damn. There's some reason some kind of push pin on the bottom front mount. So it snapped. Sigh. At least it was just the pin and not the panel. God knows how you are supposed to get that free.
OK, onward. To get to the shock's bottom bolt requires removing the footrest hanger on the offside. No big deal, three allen bolts which all came out cleanly. Then a small bracket carrying the rear hose has to be unbolted. Then the big nut can be undone and finally the bolt itself drifted clear of the eye.
But before I removed it, I tackled the top nut. This needed the rear master cylinder mounting bracket to be loosened and swung clear, then the nut could be removed - easy peasy.
At this point I drifted the bottom bolt clear - there's just about room to get in behind the chain and swing arm to get it clear. Although there was a bit of corrosion on it - assembled dry of course - it came out the other side with no fuss. So I cleaned it up, and put it to one side ready for reassembly. So far, about 30 mins.
So time to drift the top mount clear.
And this is where things got a bit stuck. There's a big bit of main wiring loom in the way. In fact there's a T junction in the loom where the wiring down to the ABS unit. This is just under the shock and just behind the gearbox. The T junction is right behind the bolt. No way to get it clear. And the loom wouldn't move. No flex at all.
Hmm.
So... off with the tank to see why the loom refused to budge. It turns out there's locating ring with a push-pin mount holding it to a bit of metal welded to the left-hand side of the frame just under the back of the tank. I managed to 'persuade' this out and that frees up a bit of play in the main loom. But that section running to the ABS is very short - I can't lift the loom to get the T in the loom clear of the back of the bolt.
So turn my attention to the ABS unit itself. I removed another bit of bracket work protecting the wiring thinking I could pop the connector out and get the movement needed. Not on your nelly. It looks like the entire ABS unit has to be removed to pull the plug out. The ABS sits up against the back of the gearbox in a steel box. I couldn't even see where it was fixed but to get in there and search for bolts seems to mean that it's not just the rear wheel out but also the plastic spray guard immediately behind the ABS unit... and that appears to be fastened to the top of the swing arm with rivets! It would appear that the only way to get the ABS off to remove the plug is to take the wheel out then remove the swing arm. Sod that for a game of soldiers.
By now it's about an hour in and time for a bit of swearing, a check in the US election, and a cup of tea.
I look at it all again. I can see half the bolt head. If I pull the cable as far out the way as I can, I'm lacking about 2mm clearance.
Time for a bit of 'easement' via some extra leverage with a tyre iron. Very gently I lean on the tyre iron. That does the trick, the head's clear, out pops the bolt which is dry of course but remarkably completely uncorroded - not bad on an eleven year old bike which gets cleaned twice a year - once in the autumn before I spray the whole thing with Mr Sheen, and once in the spring to clean it off again.
So now all I have to do is remove the shock. Of course, there's not enough clearance to remove both eyes from the brackets. Then I remember that I've propped the back wheel on a couple of blocks of wood to keep the weight off the bottom bolt as I pushed it out. I remove the prop. The extra space is just enough to work the shock round and get both eyes free. The old Yamaha shock is finally out about 90 mins after starting.
Fortunately, the reverse procedure went much more quickly, even though I was worried that as delivered, the preload was set to make the shock about 5mm longer between the eyes. But a bit of jiggling and it dropped into place. Once I'd got the top bolt back in (which a bit of easement from the tyre iron on the loom again) I just needed a third hand to lift the rear wheel to get the bottom bolt in whilst I lined up the bottom eye and pushed the bolt home. With both bolts torqued up, it was just a case of reassembling everything (and trying to remember where the small bracket had fitted - oh yes, the rear hydraulic hose), bolt the tank back down and put the side panels back, then finally the seat, remembering NOT to leave the key under the seat. That took about 15 mins.
By that time it was a bit late to go out for a ride, but a quick bounce on the seat reveals it's MUCH stiffer. I know it'll take a few miles to bed in, but I suspect the front will now be a total mismatch (but the budget's run out for this year and with training income on hold again from COVID it'll stay in the red till year when hopefully I'll get a full year's training in) but at least the rear shouldn't bottom out two-up on speed bumps any more.
I might wind a bit of preload off as the tail's sitting a bit higher than it did on the old shock but I'll see how it rides first. I'll probably take it out for a quick ride tomorrow just to see.
But boy, sometimes I think "bring back twin shocks". It took ten minutes to change the pair on my CB250RSA a few years back
