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Disabling front dampers
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:36 am
by Alex'n'Ane
Having fitted a new tele damper kit, I want to disarm the front lever arm dampers. How do I go about stopping them 'damping'? The oil needs changing anyway so I would rather disarm them and see how the ride is, then choose what grade of oil to refill with if I feel necessary.
Re: Disabling front dampers
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:19 am
by don58van
Hi
Declan is the expert on this. There is a thread on here where he shows all the innards of the dampers.
You can open them up and take out a valve, OR
Put in very low viscosity oil -- say 5-40 (the 5 is the important value) for a very low level of damping.
Cheers
Don
Re: Disabling front dampers
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:05 pm
by Alex'n'Ane
don58van wrote:Hi
Declan is the expert on this. There is a thread on here where he shows all the innards of the dampers.
You can open them up and take out a valve, OR
Put in very low viscosity oil -- say 5-40 (the 5 is the important value) for a very low level of damping.
Cheers
Don
Thanks, i have read through the thread, but it doesn't outline exactly which part of the lower valve system needs removing. Also i have left my haynes manual elsewhere so just an explanation as how to drain and refill the oil would also be helpful.
Re: Disabling front dampers
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:41 pm
by chrisryder
with the valve removed, it shouldn't really matter what viscosity oil is in there. it's only needed for lubrication, there won't be any resistance with the valve out.
to drain the oil you remove the bottom 'bolt' that goes in sideways, and remove it carefully as it's got a long pin on it. on the pin there are various bits (the valve itself) and some springs. it's important to make sure you get them the right way round when refitting.
when i drained mine i removed the filler plug on top too, to allow air in to let the oil drain. once the oil has drained, you will find that moving the arm up and down will pump a bit more oil out. it was easy to move mine as it was off the car, but if you've got the whole suspension built up, all you can do is bounces the car up and down to pump the oil out.
i'd imagine that to disable the damper, all you need to do is slide off the valve and springs off the 'pin' on the drain plug. but i've not done it myself! i will be doing so when i get around to fitting teles myself.
Re: Disabling front dampers
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:29 pm
by bmcecosse
I strongly urge you to retain the standard dampers - damping! This to take some strain off the mounts for the extra dampers. By all means use thinnish oil - as suggested - you can then move up the scale till you get what you want. My car with both tele and lever damping soaks up high speed undulations beautifully and only very rarely gets to the bump or rebound stops.
