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How To: Rebuilding the OEM Rear Shock '03-04' SHOWA MEE-003

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#1 · (Edited)
How-To: Rebuilding the OEM Rear Shock '03-04' SHOWA MEE-003

I have searched, and searched, and well, as you may have guessed, searched some more and have come up dry as to 'how to rebuild' a rear shock.. THUS.. i took the liberty of doing a how-to for everyone here who may be so inclined to pursue this, rather than take the easy way out, and spend the 200$ or so.

Cost.. 15$ of oil. Seals were in mint shape; no leaks, dings, or any signs of wear. Everything in spec as well, thus not "NECESSARY" to do. However, if you have the parts, go for it, it never hurts.

Tools (keep in mind 03-04)

  • SPRING COMPRESSORS
  • 14mm wrench
  • Small punch, round or pointed tip
  • Rubber mallet
  • Vice
  • Small Common (flat blade) screw driver
  • Litter pan, oil pan, etc. Anything that catches oil that's easy to work in
  • 2 hands

Goodies

- 2.5w to 5w oil. 5w is the most common choice, however it's your decision based on your type of riding etc. Remember, this is to dampen, not necessarily stiffen.

I used Motul 5w Fork oil, synthetic (Fork oil doesn't mean ONLY FOR FORKS!! duh..)

-Nitrogen. I have my own filling station, but welders, suspension techs, some car dealerships (Vdub for one) have nitrogen stations as well and wont charge an arm and a leg like most motorcycle shops.

- Seal kit if you so find necessary.

- Bladder replacement, as well, if you so find necessary.


**** This how to is for a 2003 CBR 600RR, shock, Showa Mee-003 with 34000km.
Based on my riding style, as well as the previous owners use, it can be said that both bladder and seals DO NOT require replacement. HOWEVER if you so feel it's necessary, please, by all means do. Having a completely fresh shock will only provide many more years of safe and enjoyable riding, not to mention, void any reason to have to pursue this again in the near future. PLEASE DO THIS HOW TO AT YOUR OWN RISK. I'M NOT LIABLE FOR ANY MISINTERPRETATION OF THE INFORMATION GIVEN. When the bladder is bled, please move... *



HOW TO

  1. Remove shock from bike.
The manual states the muffler must be removed however this is not entirely true.

First jack the bike up.

Keep the bike steady by using a track stand or tie downs to safe areas. The bike MAY want to tip over at some point.

Another key point is to tie-wrap the front brake lever to the grip to prevent it from rolling forward.

Second, remove all bolts holding the shock in place including the lower linkage.

Once this is complete, grab a friend! No friends around?? Grab a dog! or a cat! or.. someone who respects you enough to understand the pain you're venturing on. Get this person or 'thing' to pull up, from the muffler, the entire rear end of the bike while you jimmy the shock free of the swingarm. Pull it UP, then towards the back, and voila, it's out.

2. Clean the SHOCK!!

People like to start pulling things apart when they're filthy as heck, PLEASE DON'T! Any particles of dirt or etc may jam inside the piston orifices once everything is dismantled. A clean shock will avoid this issue and will look nice once it's put back on.

3. Remove the spring.

Place lower shock mount in vice whereas it will NOT BEND.

Use the tool located in the pocket of the bike (Road side repair tools) with the extension to dial the Sag Setting to 7 (highest). This will give you a little extra before beginning to tighten down the spring.

Place your MacPherson strut spring compressors in a way they're not jammed, but will allow enough play inside to slide the shock out, as well as enough thread to bunker down the spring.


Begin tighten either side at an equal pace.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!! If the compressor lets go, shield your genitals, or face.. Whichever you value most..

Once there is enough play in the sag adjuster, push it upwards and attempt to slide out the two small semi circular clips that hold it all together. Once you find them, and get them out...

remove the shock from the vice.

Remove spring. KEEP SPRING COMPRESSORS IN SAME POSITION. Once you remove them it will make installing the spring a PITA!!



Here's a photo of the break down of what you've just done. The lower right are the 2 semi circles holding the base plate to the shock. The compressors are on backwards because the provided more clearance.

4. Begin by removing air.


First, remove the black cap from the external reservoir. No matter how nice i was to it, it was never again the same. HOWEVER, you will not want to put it back on once you see inside. It's full of rust, gunk etc. Instead, get a valve cap and leave the black cap off. It will allow more accessibility for next time, as well as looks nicer and remains cleaner :) Remove the black cap by prying it with a screw driver. BE CAREFUL!!!! The shrader valve for the bladder is DIRECTLY below the cap in the immediate center. Do not drill in the center, or jab it etc.

Next, Let the air out. It's a big blast so move over a little, you never know.


5. Now begin removing oil.

Set ALL SETTINGS TO SOFT.

Take your 16mm spanner and remove your compression (Top adjuster at top of shock tower) adjuster.

Keep it on a level surface as to not create TOO much of a mess.

Now, poor oil into your oil pan while simultaneously pumping the shock until its a very light drip.

6. Removing bladder from air reservoir

Take a socket (forget the damn size..) that surrounds the valve and lightly knock the whole platform into the chamber.

You will see a small circlip, remove it.

Grab the valve and begin to pull it out. It will be tough.. You CAN use a small flat blade to pry it up slowly, it's what i do, however sometimes it may knick the anodizing. But wtv.. No one sees it and god knows how long it'll take to get it out otherwise. I did have a tool with a threaded valve cap and a long T handle shape doo-dad but i lost it :(

once it's out, clean the bladder, remove it from the platform and inspect.

If the bladder looks like its been beaten by several angry prostitutes AND their pimps, then it's probably time to change it. Always good though, because they do tend to wear, ie. they contract and expand VERY often, generate large amounts of heat and thus it's only natural for them to attain a strange curvature.

Here's mine.. I kept it in only because 2 or 3 prostitutes managed to get to it..



Forget the syringe, that's for the filling process, however not entirely necessary..


7. Remove the piston and etc from the shock body.

First, take your mallet and punch and remove the part at the bottom of the shock body that the piston goes inside of. There are small HOLES for this exact purpose, so use them properly and DO NOT hit the chromed slider.. for heavens sake, please don't..

Now turn the shock upside down to look from the bottom.

You will need to take your punch and either gently knock the inner section of the assembly down inside, or use your fingers IF it moves..

You'll see another circlip, exactly like the one from the reservoir, remove it.



Now, pull the shock assembly apart. If it doesn't slide apart nicely, which i hope it DOESN'T (all seals, piston etc out of tolerance big time..) YANK IT REALLY HARD. Hard, but straight. it should keep itself generally centered considering its only uni directional, but still just be on the safe side.

Once it's out, clean it up, inspect it (to your own eye, no info in the manual..) and set it aside.

Clean the shock body and let it drain entirely.

**** My little trick! To keep those dust seals bumpin for little while longer, give them a clean. Best way, film negatives. make it flush with the chrome slider and simply slide a corner into the seal to clean and excess dirt. WD-40 it and wipe it up..



*
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#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
REINSTALLING COMPONENTS AND NEW OIL

Considering i did not change seals or bladder, this is a fairly simple task. However, if you're embarking on swapping seals and going that extra mile and are unsure, please PM me.. I've done this hundreds of times and it never hurts to ask first.. TRUST ME! Its a shotpeened top bolt that needs to be sawed off, then the valve stacks have to be removed and kept in order etc.. It's not the most enjoably experience but hey, its life..


1. Replace piston and slider back into shock body.

This is done by simply pushing it into the shock body.

once its in, replace your circlip and then yank it back to make sure it seats properly.

Knock end cap back onto shock body.

2. Begin the filling process.

Get your 5 weight or whatever oil you chose and open er' up.

Poor some into your air chamber until it begins filling the compression adjuster chamber.

Now begin the tedious process of filling and pumping, and i mean this in a literal sense.

Steps : Poor, slowly move piston up (or down), poor, slowly move piston down (or up). NOW Once this has been done a few times, begin to raise the level of the shock so that the air begins to rise up and out of the compression adjustment hole.

NOTE if you have a syringe, use it now by filling it with fluid and putting it directly into the hole of the adjustment cavity. It will shoot the oil directly into the shock body without having to pump up down several times. However you will still have to bleed the shock properly.


Continue bleeding by raising the shock, adding oil, and pumping the piston.



Do this until no AIR comes out and only oil is being displaced! YOU MUST NOT HAVE ANY AIR LEFT IN THE CHAMBER ONCE THIS IS COMPLETE!!.

3. Replace air bladder.

Put the platform and bladder together.

Put some fluid on it to lube it up.

Slide it into chamber and push down until you can replace the circlip.

Replace circlip and yank back up until it's flush.

4. Continuation of bleeding air.

Continue to pump until only fluid is being displaced, once more.

On the last stroke, DOWN, there should be no air bubbles, and then fill the adjuster cavity to the brim with fluid.

Now replace the compression adjuster and make a filthy filthy mess.

Tighten it and clean it up.

5. CHECK FOR AIR.. CRUCIAL!!

Air will allow the body of the shock to move in strange ways; ie. popping across the stroke, moving quickly and less fluidly then normal and will generate massive heat.

Place the lower portion of the shock on the ground and press it down.

YOU WILL have to pull it back out, remember, there's no rebound (Air, or spring)

Do this several times until there are no AIR sounds. I'm sorry i cant make air sounds so I didn't make a video clip! lol

Once this is working great and every thing's flawless, try the air chamber for leaks.

6. Pump the air chamber with normal air to check.

I use a compressor and usually hit it up around 40 psi to seat it, then hit up around 150psi to make sure it holds. You most likely wont be able to check the pressure it in, however as long as there's an abundance of air coming out of it when you tap the shrader valve then that's a definite good sign.

7. Release air and replace Nitrogen

No2 @ 140-180 psi is average. For a person 185 lbs, the approximate ratio in this instance is 150 psi on avg. This can vary for the type of riding because it allows for a very discrete range of dampening.

Anywho, since you're excited and on the brink of completion, fill her up!

8. Replace Spring.

Since its still compressed, i hope.. Slide the shock through the correct way and replace the sag adjustment components correctly.

Replace the two semi circle doo-dads and then slowly release the shock compression.


VOILA!!! It's all done.. And you have yourself a freshly rebuilt shock at the cost of oh, an hour or so if things went smooth and 40$ MAX of supplies (considering you replaced EVERYTHING)

If you have any questions or comments that you'd like to direct to me; nelsonmxmarc@live.com , i'm more than willing to give you a hand. or PM me!
 
#3 ·
if possible, this topic would probably serve more justice in the 'how-to section'. I originally meant to put there but that's my mistake..
 
#6 ·
Hey no prob guys! You may think it's difficult but to be honest, with the right amount of patience and time, it's quite a simple task. Anyone can definitely do it, not to mention, benefit from learning how and doing it yourself rather than have to rely on others! Always gratifying to tackle these things on your own ;)

Take care
 
#7 ·
Bump - Sticky? Definitely not for the cred's but i know i looked everywhere for info to make sure it wasn't already covered; could always help those DIY people out!
 
#9 ·
Bumping this thread!!! this should be a sticky! or at least placed in the how to section
 
#11 ·
Update to the install. Got it all back together. Filling it with Nitrogen was a bit fun. As it turns out, at a tire shop, when you pull the chuck off the schraeder you lose quite a bit of pressure in the split-second it takes to remove it. So what we did was turn up the pressure to 175 PSI and then I filled it and as I pulled the chuck off the tire guy kept the nitrogen flowing. It's not worth even checking the pressure as you lose quite a bit of nitrogen in the process. So with a bit of practice we got it to the point where I think it's going to be pressurized to between 150 - 175 PSI.

On the job itself, one thing is absolutely key and that's having the proper spring compressor. I did the job at my cousin's shop and he has no less then 6 different pairs of compressors. Of the 6 the ones I used were identical to the one's the author used.

The problem is, they are not the proper spring compressor for the job. They will, and did, mark up the shock body as well as the spring. In addition, the aluminum collar took a small beating as well.

The conclusion I came down to was this, if a fellow has the proper spring compressor and easy access to properly fill the shock with Nitrogen, by all means, it's an easy job. On the other hand, chances are you're still going to nick the shock body or damage the sticker or the paint on the spring. In the end it took a LOT of time to get the spring back on the shock and during the job the compressors came off under tension several times. The last time one landed directly on my little toe and probably fractured it (blood/sharp pain and even some ....shock....:)

My suggestion is this. Getting one of these shocks done is very reasonable, even if you re-spring it and re-valve it. They will have the proper tools and the shock would probably come back to you without a scratch. Point being, the savings was not worth it. I'm happy that the shock is now filled up with really good fluid, that it has the proper pressure set and a ride report will follow. But in hindsight, I think what I will do is pick up a used shock off e-bay and have it sent directly to the suspension house of choice for re-valving/cleaning etc. This way, no ride interruption at all and the cost is probably $400 or so even if you need to re-spring it.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Ride Report

Just got back from a truly great ride. The road we took has been travelled many times and one section, in particular, has enough bumps to be a real back-breaker. In fact, I typically could not remain in the right lane due to the undulations in the road surface.

The re-build shock is unreal. The rear end of the bike is stiff and yet pliable. I could easily ride on the right side of that stretch with no issue. In fact, during a 45 minute ride on well-known road I intentionally went out of my way to hit every bump, pothole and manhole cover.

180 pound rider, I went with my standard stock +2 on the rear pre-load (position #6) and reset the compression damping to default. I was really, really impressed. I then went two softer on the compression and found it was goofy. I then went back to stock +1 on the hard side and found it too was goofy. In short, the stock setting was noticeably best to the point where I could nail it down to the specific click setting.

But this is what's really interesting. Prior to doing the rear shock that very same ride (45 minutes) on the same road would result in my back being sore and if I did not stop every 15 minutes or so I would get a bad case of white finger.

What I noticed, and it took some time before I realized it, was that my back was not sore in the least and my right hand was not tingling at all. My wrists were fine. Literally, all was well and this was not something I had experienced on this bike before the rear shock was done!

So I'm very, very pleased with it. One thing is clear though, even though the rear is now 100% with respect to settings the front now needs to be re-visited. This pleases me no end as I'm quickly drilling down to the ideal settings. The front forks were re-done just a few months so dialing them in too should be no issue.

I can't even begin to express how pleased I am with the rear suspension at this point!

The bike is on '06 with 40,000 kilometers on it.
 
#13 ·
When I took my 2007 forks off to have them re-done, I pushed them against the ground to feel the response. Then I did it again when I got the forks back, with fresh oil and different springs and valving. The biggest felt difference, was that 6 year old fork oil basically turns into mud; the after forks would spring back and forth, but the before forks would 'mush' through their stroke. It was like a massive additional amount of damping. I would not be surprised to understand that rear shocks are the same way, that old oil would basically be like adding 10 clicks of damping to the stroke and prevent the correct amount of bound and rebound.
 
#15 ·
...The biggest felt difference, was that 6 year old fork oil basically turns into mud; the after forks would spring back and forth, but the before forks would 'mush' through their stroke. It was like a massive additional amount of damping. I would not be surprised to understand that rear shocks are the same way, that old oil would basically be like adding 10 clicks of damping to the stroke and prevent the correct amount of bound and rebound.
I drained the oil from the rear shock into a graduated cylinder to measure and see what came out. It was pretty black and it was fairly thick as compared to the new oil.

I left the cylinder sitting with the oil in it for couple of days. Yesterday I went to drain it out and guess what? Once the oil was gone there was a ton of black sludge left in the bottom of the cylinder. It was a real eye opener. It was 10 years old with 40,000 kilometres on it (less then 25,000 miles). If we had x-ray vision I bet you could look at most any bike with some time/miles on it and you would see a ton of sludge in the bottom of the body.

It really made me realize how important it is to change out that oil. I'm thinking the new oil should stay cleaner longer due to the brunt of the wear-in already having occurred but we'll see next time I drain it.
 
#14 ·
I was shocked :)laughing:) at the difference, particularly in rider fatigue. I've been doing the same run for the last two months and each time, upon getting home, my back was shot, white finger had set it etc. Really painful stuff. I thought it was typical of the type of bike and had tried gripping the tank really hard taking the weight off my wrists etc but no matter what, a long ride was painful.

My guess is that the geometry was off in some fashion. It really feels as if the rear is higher now. One thing I did notice was that prior to the rebuild the rear shock would get hot - too hot to touch. Since the rebuild, it's about as warm as anything else (much cooler).

I'm ecstatic. It needs tires like you would not believe (soon!) but I can see now that it's actually worth dialing in the suspension. :laugh:
 
#20 ·
I watched this YT video last night which explains why there is no actual volume given. It's just fill it till it runs over and close everything up. I will say I picked up (3) liters of Maxima standard 10w. It's a little heavier than the 5w. Or at least I think the OEM fluid is 5w for the shock.

Got any insight on the 2004 conv forks? I could use some help. I really don't like flying blind with things I can't afford to replace.
 
#21 ·
Should be fine with 10w, there's enough adjustment range to deal with it. And you'll get longer life out of rebuild as it wears out.

Personally unless you're a massive elephant, using stock oil-levels would be best. Can add some pre-load if sag's too high. But I've noticed most often that these bikes come pretty stiff and you have to soften them up a little to get proper sag.
 
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#22 ·
We're on the same page. The OEM spring was perfectly fine for me. I had no problems with setting up my sag. I was pondering how it would effect my rebound dampening. I was concerned about making it too thick and moving my rebound curve up too far making it too stiff. But the Maxima oil weighs out at 6.5w @ 100°C so it may not be that much heavier than the OEM oil. I will most likely find out because I'll probably wind up using the Maxima 10w.
 
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