Shiver 45 Inspection
 

Hi, just stripped down the RH fork on my 07 EC300, first time ive ever done it so just want to make sure all looks normal and get your thoughts on the shims stacks. I know these are old forks now, but maybe some of you are still using them or have worked with them before. All advice greatly appreciated :)

Firstly the rebound piston ring. Does this look like normal wear? I think it looks ok, if im right in thinking its a teflon coating.

Attachment 4798


The drained oil was grey and definitey had a silver tinge running through it. I was wondering if the silver colour has come from the cartidge rod wearing as it passes the seal in the top of the cartridge, as the portion of the rod thats in the cartridge is shiny and the section above the cartidge is dull. See picture. Is this normal?

Attachment 4799


Shim stacks attached fyi. Ive been reading through old posts on these forks, and it seems my stacks are similar to what others have found i.e. lots of free bleed on compression (comp piston also has the 2mm bleed hole), a strange multi-stage low-mid compression arrangement, and more free bleed on the mid-valve. Others have also noted a of lack of rebound damping, and i think thats what i have too with that rebound stack...?

Attachment 4797


Its been interesting learning how forks work and am looking forward to see if i can improve on it. Ive not had too many complaints with them so far, but then I havnt really been specifcally assessing them while riding. Just been enjoying riding it ha. I have found the clickers dont do much and that they dont inspire confidence when going relatively fast over sharp edged, uneven, rutted, surfaces, like theyre deflecting maybe and cant keep up with the surface.


Thanks,
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I've had my '07 300 forks revalved & they are much better over tree roots that used to be a problem before.

But they still beat me up over stutter bumps & I've grown tired of them so I've bought some YZ250 KYB SSS forks to do the conversion soon. Many threads if you just look back in the suspension section (search sucks).

I have the same silver tint to my fork oil on my 07 EC 300. Also had these Marzocchi 45's revalved by LTR, now handles chop/rocks/roots with amazing performance. LTR said the grey oil and silver tint is from torquing the lower fork clamps to factory spec, that it is too much for the thin walled 45's on this bike. It pinches the upper fork tube so the lower can bind at that juncture. The fix (?) is to torque the upper clamps to factory spec and the lower clamp MIDDLE bolt to 11ft/lbs, and the other two bolts on the lower clamp to hand snug only. This should minimize the wear at that juncture.
I've been running mine for over a year since making these adjustments, anticipating doing the SSS fork swap at some point, but my 45's still work fine. And on LTR's recommendation I use ATF, like Dexron 3 or 4 and change it every 20 hrs, supposedly the ATF keeps particulates suspended better than fork oil.

Interested to see what adjustments you make and what results you get. What is your weight, riding style and spring rate?

From that I see some bloody thick shims which really makes it hard to fine tune without having a handful of shims to throw at it.
For reference
one .15 = 3 -.10 shims
one .20 = 2 -.15 shims or 8 -.10 shims
one .25 = 2 -.20 shims or 5 -.15 shims
one .30 = 2 -.25 shims or 4 -.20 shims

Ideally you'd want your fork stacks built up with .1s and .15s

Need the mid valve float as well. Makes a huge difference in how the fork feels.

What size damper rod do these have? What size cart?