Top shock bushing/mount 07 ohlins

[highspeedsteel]

I have a 07 EC250 with an Ohlins shock. The top bush of the shock seems to be a metal shaft mounted in rubber. It doesn’t appear to pivot or anything it just relies on the give of the rubber to take up the twisting, I know there isn’t much but this seems a little crud. Is this correct or should it be able to move? Can it be replaced easily because the rubber is looking quite worn. The rubber appears to be to soft to me, it has sacked out from the forces of the shock on it. I will take a photo of the upper shock setup next time I have the seat and tank off the bike.

Thanks
Kerry

[highspeedsteel]

Not the best picture as I have to pull a fair bit of stuff off the bike to get a good photo. But the bush/rubber in the shock here is what is worrying me.

[gasgasman]

The top shock mount barely moves. It is not enough to need an actual bearing.

[highspeedsteel]

Yeah I guessed that, you can't see it from the photo, but the rubber is compressed on the top quite a lot from the force of the shock, and the frame mounts have made contact with the top of the shock, but only just.

[jeffd]

Hi Kerry,
I was talking to Les at LT-Racing today, he is a good friend and we speak often - I asked about this. The ohlins have previously come with a heim joint with seals and collars. If it concerns you, you can probably press out the rubber assembly and replace it with the the heim joint assembly that was used previously. Les suggested you contact the ohlins distributor in new zealand, etc.

jeff

p.s. On edit - are you sure that there is a heim joint in their and what you are seeing is the outer seals? I would pop it off the bike and check it out.

[highspeedsteel]

Thanks for the info,

Next time I have the bike appart I will look at it more, at the moment I think it will be ok. I am planning on getting the shock serviced sometime in the next few months so when I have it out for that I will check have another look then. I don't think its a really big problem. More just one of those things that will need to be dealt with at somestage. I will let you know how I get on once I have it appart.

Thanks again,

Kerry

[highspeedsteel]

Just a quick follow up about the top shock mount. It really was just a bit of rubber see photos. My bike has about 60hrs on it and the bush/mount was worn out. Replaced with a heim joint as is used on most ohlins.

[GMP]

More cost cutting no doubt. I have to look closer at my Sachs. No problems and works great, but it does seem to move around more on the mounts when you adjust the preload ring than my previous two Ohlins did.

[highspeedsteel]

Yeah that's what the NZ ohlins importer thought as well. I tried to get a new one through the dealer I got the bike from and was told that they couldn't get that part, I got hold of the NZ ohlins importer and had the part in my hands in 2 days!!
As an aside I worked out that the heim joint from an DRZ400 should fit (untested just going on measurements) and also the current yz/wr yamaha mount should also fit with some easy modification (also untested). I got the measurements of the pivot works website that had schematic drawings of all the parts they supply. The cost of these parts was the same or more then the ohlins parts so not worth trying, but could be useful if needed.

[MattR]

Just some FYI...

I'm a suspension engineer in the auto industry. The rubber bushing you have is called a double-bonded bushing. This style is very common on automotive shocks. I agree that Ohlins design is very basic (i.e., cheap), but the intent is to provide better isolation than a standard heim joint. For example, isolating the small chop/harshness over tree roots.

Heim joints primary benefits are maintenance-free and no torsional resistance. Torsional "windup" can lead to extra friction on the sliding piston rod unless other factors are accounted for internally in the shock. In any case, shocks with heim joints would need slightly different tuning at low speeds to provide a similar isolation as shocks with rubber bushings.

After riding with your "remounted" shock, you may need to adjust your low-speed compression adjuster on your shock by 1 or 2 clicks to compensate.