315r 2001 Rear Suspension Adjuster

[jmlfin]

Hi

I just bought older ym. 2001 315R from my friend. I serviced it today and noticed that under the mudguard where the airfilter is there`s a screw that in my believe is the adjuster for rear suspension. I tried to adjust it, but although it seems to be in good conditions Im not able to adjust it either way. Is there a trick to do this or what might be the problem?

[manofsteele]

Nope, no trick. It should just move, click by click. It's the damping adjuster, 20 click range I believe.

[fastducs]

The damping adjuster that you are referring to can become corroded inside, and "freeze". The adjuster is steel, and the body is aluminum, so it is fertile ground for galvanic corrosion. If you keep trying to turn it with more force, it will shear inside. Mine did. So I had a local suspension shop (GMD Computrack Boston) rebuild my rear shock, and they had to fabricate the broken adjuster because Showa will not sell it. GMD made a small batch of those adjusters, so I'm sure they have a few left over. Have you rebuilt shocks before, or do you have a local suspension shop? If you weren't on the other side of the Atlantic, I would recommend you to send your shock to GMD, and they will rebuild it for reasonable money, which includes all new seals, oil, nitrogen, etc. On the other hand, the dollar is so weak against the euro right now ... anyway, you do the math. Here is GMD contact info:

Peter Kates

GMD Computrack Boston

http://www.computrackboston.com/

BTW, it might be a good idea to periodically turn all adjusters back and forth to prevent them from becoming "frozen".

Good luck,

Vitaly

[wherry]

JMLFin. Yes these can seize up as fastducs says. However, I've just freed off the adjuster on my '99 315 and the thing that made it difficult was knowing which way to turn it, in case it was at the end of it's travel one way. Now that it's freed off it is obvious however. If you've got only about 1 -2mm between the inside of the adjuster wheel and the shock body then it is fully wound in so you need to undo it - turn it to the left. If there is more like 8mm then it's fully out and you'll need to wind it in - turn to the right. If you're somewhere in between then you can probably go either way. I took the airbox off mine to properly get at it, cleaned around the adjuster shaft as much as possible and soaked it in WD40 (penetrating oil/paraffin) for a few days. Mine has got a slot in the end of the adjuster shaft, in the middle of the purple wheel, so I applied a bit of steady force with a small screwdriver. After a few goes it suddenly creaked and is now going fully in and out and miraculously actually does alter the damping. I hope you manage to get yours going - I've been thinking of all sorts including buying a new replacement shock but thankfully I don't need to now. Best of luck.

Oh yes and after reading back through this you might also need to know that with the adjuster fully wound in you're on maximum damping, and vice versa with the adjuster fully out. Cheers.