rear shock

[Guest motohockey]

Hello, anyone out there have a good tutorial with pictures on how to remove rear shock from an 09 VFR 800 ABS? I have the shop manual but need all the help I can get!LOL!

 

Also, looking to try and find the little rubber button on the dash panel that is used to change time, temps, etc...any suggestions? Honda only sells the whole panel assembly.

 

Thanks

[Duc2V4]

13 minutes ago, motohockey said:

Hello, anyone out there have a good tutorial with pictures on how to remove rear shock from an 09 VFR 800 ABS? I have the shop manual but need all the help I can get!LOL!

 

Also, looking to try and find the little rubber button on the dash panel that is used to change time, temps, etc...any suggestions? Honda only sells the whole panel assembly.

 

Thanks

As far as the shock goes, put the bike on the center stand and remove the rear wheel. In order to pull the shock out all the way, you’ll need to remove the plastic knob from the preload adjuster and the adjuster from the mount. Be CAREFUL when removing the knob, there is a small spring loaded ball bearing that sits under the knob and this could go shooting across the garage!

 

Once that is done, you’ll need to get at the top mount bolt that goes through the center of the frame, so you’ll have to undo the tank mounting bolts front and rear so you can raise the rear of the tank and get access to the shock mount bolt. Now underneath, remove the suspension triangles and “dog bone”. Note that the swing arm will want to drop to the flooor so be cognizant of that, or you could pinch your hand and/or fingers. You can use a jack stand to keep the swing arm in place while you do this part. Once the upper and lower mounts have been undone, you’ll need to feed the remote adjuster through the frame so it will follow the shock out through the swing arm.

 

The trick to removal is raising and lowering the swingarm to get enough room to wiggle the shock down and out. You’ll understand what to do when you see how the shock needs to come out. Having a second person to help do this is recommended but not 100% necessary. You might want to also loosen the upper shock mount that will still be attached to the upper shock eyelet. This will allow it to swivel giving enough clearance to get the shock out. I don’t recall having to remove it but that might help regardless.

 

i hope this explanation is descriptive enough and helps you. Regarding the rubber button, you may have luck ant an electronic supply store.

 

 

[digitallyhip]

1 hour ago, Duc2V4 said:

As far as the shock goes, put the bike on the center stand and remove the rear wheel. In order to pull the shock out all the way, you’ll need to remove the plastic knob from the preload adjuster and the adjuster from the mount. Be CAREFUL when removing the knob, there is a small spring loaded ball bearing that sits under the knob and this could go shooting across the garage!

 

Once that is done, you’ll need to get at the top mount bolt that goes through the center of the frame, so you’ll have to undo the tank mounting bolts front and rear so you can raise the rear of the tank and get access to the shock mount bolt. Now underneath, remove the suspension triangles and “dog bone”. Note that the swing arm will want to drop to the flooor so be cognizant of that, or you could pinch your hand and/or fingers. You can use a jack stand to keep the swing arm in place while you do this part. Once the upper and lower mounts have been undone, you’ll need to feed the remote adjuster through the frame so it will follow the shock out through the swing arm.

 

The trick to removal is raising and lowering the swingarm to get enough room to wiggle the shock down and out. You’ll understand what to do when you see how the shock needs to come out. Having a second person to help do this is recommended but not 100% necessary. You might want to also loosen the upper shock mount that will still be attached to the upper shock eyelet. This will allow it to swivel giving enough clearance to get the shock out. I don’t recall having to remove it but that might help regardless.

 

i hope this explanation is descriptive enough and helps you. Regarding the rubber button, you may have luck ant an electronic supply store.

 

 

A floor jack is a HUGE help when it comes to moving the swingarm so that you can weasel the shock out.

[VARIABLE9]

On 12/1/2018 at 5:36 PM, Duc2V4 said:

As far as the shock goes, put the bike on the center stand and remove the rear wheel. In order to pull the shock out all the way, you’ll need to remove the plastic knob from the preload adjuster and the adjuster from the mount. Be CAREFUL when removing the knob, there is a small spring loaded ball bearing that sits under the knob and this could go shooting across the garage!

 

Once that is done, you’ll need to get at the top mount bolt that goes through the center of the frame, so you’ll have to undo the tank mounting bolts front and rear so you can raise the rear of the tank and get access to the shock mount bolt. Now underneath, remove the suspension triangles and “dog bone”. Note that the swing arm will want to drop to the flooor so be cognizant of that, or you could pinch your hand and/or fingers. You can use a jack stand to keep the swing arm in place while you do this part. Once the upper and lower mounts have been undone, you’ll need to feed the remote adjuster through the frame so it will follow the shock out through the swing arm.

 

The trick to removal is raising and lowering the swingarm to get enough room to wiggle the shock down and out. You’ll understand what to do when you see how the shock needs to come out. Having a second person to help do this is recommended but not 100% necessary. You might want to also loosen the upper shock mount that will still be attached to the upper shock eyelet. This will allow it to swivel giving enough clearance to get the shock out. I don’t recall having to remove it but that might help regardless.

 

i hope this explanation is descriptive enough and helps you. Regarding the rubber button, you may have luck ant an electronic supply store.

 

 

Excellent helpful response to the OP!

[Guest]

Sounds good but the shop manual steps include removal of rear fender assembly and the exhaust system!!?? Is that just overkill by Honda? I know that the manual seems to take the most convoluted path sometimes. When I changed my stator the manual said to remove fuel tank and a whole lot of other stuff just to feed the wire to the rectifier. There is a much simpler procedure thank goodness. Have you done the shock removal before?

Thanks for your time

Paul

[Cogswell]

I wrote this up in 2014.  The photos are gone unfortunately, but the description is detailed. 

 

https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/79986-6th-gen-abs-shock-removal-in-pictures/

 

The trouble is the hose that connects the shock and the adjustment knob - it's routed under the rear fender and over the rear subframe.  It will not come out intact without removing the fender (and by extension the exhaust).  The two alternatives are to 1. cut the hose or 2. remove it from the shock or adjuster.  Either way it renders the adjustment function inoperable without the hydraulic fluid for the adjuster being bled.  I believe there is a thread on one of the Honda ST forums on a bleeding procedure.  I was getting my shock back from Jamie and I didn't want to bleed it myself, so I stripped mine down to the rear subframe.  It was indeed a PITA,  but it was the only way to get it back without disconnecting the hose. 

[Guest]

thanks, pretty much what i suspected...another contributor provided instructions that made it sound so easy, no mention of the fender/exhaust removal...oh well, here in Montreal I've got the next 4  months to get it done...there is a suspension company close by called "Stadium Technologies" who will re-build the rear shock and front end...one of my riding buddies had his done and is quite happy with the results...I'd buy Ohlins if i could afford it....