My Re-Spring of the S10 ES Shock

Super08

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I had some time tonight before bed so I updated my spreadsheet with a ton of info. I have listed the seat pressures for the Eibach 500, 525, 550 and 600 lb springs with a few different size spacers. You cannot use all the same spacers on all the springs as the travel of each of the springs is different. The 500 has 120mm travel, the 525 has 116mm, the 550 has 113mm and the 600 has 112mm. For some of the spacers you run out of room for full piston travel in the shock due to the spring running out of travel and blocking. This only occurs in the 2 up with bags setting and only by a small amount. It is something I could never see myself doing as I don't ride offroad anymore and I have no plans on riding that hard with a heavy load. Either way I presented all the data and people can see for themselves. I just wanted to point out the condition does exist.
seat pressures.jpg
 
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regulator

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Thanks for sharing the data Super08. I believe I read somewhere that the total preload travel for the ES is 11mm; broken down:

1 to 1+ = +2
1+ to 2 = +7
2 to 2+ = +2

I doubt that 1mm changes things much, but am curious if someone has the definitive answer.
 

WJBertrand

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I measured the gaps between the coils (free length) of the Eibach 550 lb. spring compared to OEM and found the Eibach coils have larger spaces. Based on that I did not expect any coil binding to occur. The spring wire was the same diameter as OEM (at least as far as I could resolve with my admittedly cheap harbor freight caliper), but with about one less turn on the coil. That, and perhaps the spring material, would account for the ~30% increase in rate. I find these coil binding predictions somewhat surprising and wonder if the OEM spring has the same limitation?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Super08

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I measured the gaps between the coils (free length) of the Eibach 550 lb. spring compared to OEM and found the Eibach coils have larger spaces. Based on that I did not expect any coil binding to occur. The spring wire was the same diameter as OEM (at least as far as I could resolve with my admittedly cheap harbor freight caliper), but with about one less turn on the coil. That, and perhaps the spring material, would account for the ~30% increase in rate. I find these coil binding predictions somewhat surprising and wonder if the OEM spring has the same limitation?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Jeff I am just using the information off of the Eibach pdf. It lists the free length, the block length (spring full compressed), and the travel which is the difference between the two. I will see if I can attach the pdf. IF not I can take a screen shot of the page with the 2.5" x 8" springs, they are on page 20/48
See if this works...
Didn't work, the file is too large so I am attaching a screen shot.

Eibach.jpg
 
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ballisticexchris

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Those dogbones are starting to look good!! I'm pretty sure Jeff has had no spring bind issues or he would have posted it here.
 

Super08

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I would doubt it too. You would have to bottom out the suspension with it set in 2 up plus bags to do it. A very unlikely scenario for 99% of S10 riders.
 

Super08

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Many thanks to Karl, he really is one of the good ones guys. After working all day yesterday he came home and reworked his pdf and cad files for me to make the spacer 15mm like I have in the picture instead of 10m. Because of that I was able to reach out once I had the files and get a bunch of quotes. The average for a one off job was coming in at about $150 usd plus shipping which was too much. I managed to find a large machine shop in a city here in Canada 300 miles from me. They specialize in one off jobs and will do it for $60 cdn which is only $45 usd. I gave them the go ahead to make it. I just got off the phone and ordered the 500 lb Eibach spring and top collar/bushing to bring down the diameter from 64mm to 61mm so it isn't so loose. That will give me a total of about 16mm to 16.5mm of total spacer depending on the thickness of the bushing at the top. One of the guys on here has one and he mic'd it at 1.5mm but RT says it is only 1mm. So they may have to variance in production runs.
 

WJBertrand

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I just got off the phone and ordered the 500 lb Eibach spring and top collar/bushing to bring down the diameter from 64mm to 61mm so it isn't so loose.
interested in this collar. I didn't use one but I wrapped the shock body in rubber to hopefully stop the spring rubbing on the body. Over the miles (+50,000) though the spring has never moved.
 

wjfawb0

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Chattanooga, TN
I feel like I need more spring in the rear too. I'm 240 by myself, and the first time in eight years I drug a toe in a curve was the first ride I took on the ST last weekend. My Wr250R rides a little bit higher. :D I'll ride it more this weekend and then come back and see how this eibach, adapter, and collar are working out.
 

Karl

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I have attached 2 new drawings.

One is Doug's 15mm thick bottom spacer and the second drawing is my version 2.

Version 2 includes the 2mm thick top spacer (to give me 12mm total preload. But I am not sure about one dimension. That is the outside diameter of the existing spring seat at the top preload adjuster. Can anyone help me out with that dimension?
 

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Super08

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I doubt I can measure it on the bike. I remember in the first post you measured the ID of the top of the spring at 59mm and Ed just measured his at 60mm. He checked his a couple of days ago for me. That top collar from Racetech is advertised at 1mm but Ed checked his with calipers and it measured 1.5mm. It is notched and probably has to be squeezed a bit to fit into the spring as it has an OD of 64mm. That is a good thing as that should bring the ID of the RT collar down to 60mm from the advertised 61mm ID.
I am hoping I haven't gone too far with the 15mm spacer but with a 500 lb spring the numbers look good. The only way for me to find out for sure was to take the plunge and do it. Hopefully it is what I am after.
Here is a pic of that RT collar.
B6461N.png
 

Karl

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Thanks Doug, Hopefully your set up will work fine.

The 59mm ID, I put on the top spacer should be about right then. If anyone gets one made, they can report back on the fit, because I will not be taking mine out to check this.
 

Super08

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Sounds good, when I take mine apart in a couple weeks after everything arrives in the mail I will check the OD of the top collar on the shock to confirm.
 
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Super08

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My spring and bushing arrived today from RT. I took some measurements and the bushing it 1.5mm the same as Ed's is. I was expecting the overall diameter to be larger than it is, it is only 76.5mm but that will be OK. It doesn't need to be the same OD as the spring.
So RT is in error on the spreadsheet they have showing it as 1mm tall. (not that 0.5mm makes a difference)



IMG_5382.JPGIMG_5383.JPG
 
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ballisticexchris

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I will say you guys are persistent!! I gave up after 2 springs and adapters that required too much preload. I figure another season or 2 and I’ll just drop the bike off at RT and let them do their thing. For now the soft spring is adequate. And I figure the raising link will give me the added ground clearance needed.
 
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