How to: Service 2008 Steering Damper (lots of pics)

[Mxjeff29]

Hey Ben, you mentioned something about a "Cir-clip" plier to help do the job right....what the heck is that? The only thing I saw that you used was a needle noze plyer with a vice grip right? Help a fellow Arizonan out!! ha. I have my bike ripped down now and I'm contamplating screwing around with the thing!

[Honda_250f_rider]

Well, I emailed the picture of the valving in the steering damper to my local suspension guy. Told him that I am running 10 wt oil and have it at 2 clicks out. He said that with the shims that the damper comes with it can be stiffened up. This is what he said:

Just take the 16x0.2 at the base of each stack and install them after the 17x0.15. Right now, the 16x0.2 that are against the 17x1.6 washer aren't doing anything. If you change their placement, they will create increase dampening in each direction. This damper is valved slower in one direction than the other. The first stack ending in 11.5x0.2, is slower/stiffer than the stack ending in 9x0.2.

Here is the stock valving orientation:

And the modded one:

----

I got a chance to ride the bike on the track today. Didn't notice anything really different. But that is a good thing. If you notice too stiff dampening that aint a good thing. The bike felt good, nothing to complain about, so the damper was doing its job. I can get a more accurate comparo when I next trail ride.

These things are so, so easy to tear apart and change the oil. So I would do the valving change when you are next in it to do an oil change. Put in 10wt oil and set it at 2 clicks out.

I didn't notice the dampening to be too much, but haven't rode in the bush yet. I'm sure that I will notice the bike being more planted I guess. Without the valving change and 2 clicks out with 10wt oil, the bike felt nice and planted when ripping though the bush. Can't wait to see how much better it is with the valving change.

Inside diameter of shims 6.0mm

Anyway, hope this helps out some people.

[armourbl]

Hey Ben, you mentioned something about a "Cir-clip" plier to help do the job right....what the heck is that? The only thing I saw that you used was a needle noze plyer with a vice grip right? Help a fellow Arizonan out!! ha. I have my bike ripped down now and I'm contamplating screwing around with the thing!

Google my friend.

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=circlip+pliers&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

Some of removable heads for different angles, etc.

ben

[armourbl]

Well, I emailed the picture of the valving in the steering damper to my local suspension guy. Told him that I am running 10 wt oil and have it at 2 clicks out. He said that with the shims that the damper comes with it can be stiffened up. This is what he said:

Here is the stock valving orientation:

And the modded one:

----

I got a chance to ride the bike on the track today. Didn't notice anything really different. But that is a good thing. If you notice too stiff dampening that aint a good thing. The bike felt good, nothing to complain about, so the damper was doing its job. I can get a more accurate comparo when I next trail ride.

These things are so, so easy to tear apart and change the oil. So I would do the valving change when you are next in it to do an oil change. Put in 10wt oil and set it at 2 clicks out.

I didn't notice the dampening to be too much, but haven't rode in the bush yet. I'm sure that I will notice the bike being more planted I guess. Without the valving change and 2 clicks out with 10wt oil, the bike felt nice and planted when ripping though the bush. Can't wait to see how much better it is with the valving change.

Inside diameter of shims 6.0mm

Anyway, hope this helps out some people.

Great post. Thanks for doing the research. You've still got more room to work with the stock shims. You can stiffen it even more by moving another shim from the bottom to the top, just as you did.

ben

[armourbl]

Well, I emailed the picture of the valving in the steering damper to my local suspension guy. Told him that I am running 10 wt oil and have it at 2 clicks out. He said that with the shims that the damper comes with it can be stiffened up. This is what he said:

Here is the stock valving orientation:

And the modded one:

----

I got a chance to ride the bike on the track today. Didn't notice anything really different. But that is a good thing. If you notice too stiff dampening that aint a good thing. The bike felt good, nothing to complain about, so the damper was doing its job. I can get a more accurate comparo when I next trail ride.

These things are so, so easy to tear apart and change the oil. So I would do the valving change when you are next in it to do an oil change. Put in 10wt oil and set it at 2 clicks out.

I didn't notice the dampening to be too much, but haven't rode in the bush yet. I'm sure that I will notice the bike being more planted I guess. Without the valving change and 2 clicks out with 10wt oil, the bike felt nice and planted when ripping though the bush. Can't wait to see how much better it is with the valving change.

Inside diameter of shims 6.0mm

Anyway, hope this helps out some people.

Bringing an old post alive again. I recently did this to my damper and it definately improved it.

ben

[MRW]

Yep, now that you mention it...it`s time to change the fluid again:ride:

Great thread:thumbsup:

[dlkraniak]

I was just wondering what you guys thought about putting one of these dampers on an 05. Will it offer any benifits as far as cornering is concerned or is just a waste of money. This would be for track use only. I already have my suspension dialed in pretty good, and I am just looking for a little more control while cornering.

Thanks,

Dan

[armourbl]

I was just wondering what you guys thought about putting one of these dampers on an 05. Will it offer any benifits as far as cornering is concerned or is just a waste of money. This would be for track use only. I already have my suspension dialed in pretty good, and I am just looking for a little more control while cornering.

Thanks,

Dan

Not sure how you would do it, and pretty sure that after you bought all of the parts needed, you could have bought a GPR or Scotts setup for probably less.

Your triple clamp and steering head do not have the mounts you'd need. Also, you'd need a newer style front number plate for added clearance. Not sure how much it would cost for a Honda damper.

ben

[dlkraniak]

I found this adaptor while doing a little research on the damper.

http://www.mxbonz.com/NS2.htm

Seems pretty nice, but I have no idea how much a damper goes for, I have not seen alot of them for sale.

[susco64]

I found this adaptor while doing a little research on the damper.

http://www.mxbonz.com/NS2.htm

Seems pretty nice, but I have no idea how much a damper goes for, I have not seen alot of them for sale.

That's cool. I recently bought a 08 450 triple clamp complete with damper on e-bay and put the 22 offsets on my wife's 06 250R, which already has a scotts stabilizer anyway, so I wasn't too worried about installing the Honda damper on hers. Now I might order this and try it. The 08 clamps really made the 06 turn way better.

[dlkraniak]

That's cool. I recently bought a 08 450 triple clamp complete with damper on e-bay and put the 22 offsets on my wife's 06 250R, which already has a scotts stabilizer anyway, so I wasn't too worried about installing the Honda damper on hers. Now I might order this and try it. The 08 clamps really made the 06 turn way better.

Are you thinking about putting this on your wifes bike or yours? Either way, if you end up going this route I would be very interested to see how it works!

[susco64]

Are you thinking about putting this on your wifes bike or yours? Either way, if you end up going this route I would be very interested to see how it works!

On my wifes 06 250R. I have a 08 450R, already has damper. I got a damper with the triple clamps I bought to upgrade her 250 and was going to weld a post to mount to her frame head but the CDI is mounted there. Looks like this adapter has a CDI clip which would re-position CDI for damper install. I'm going to check into it. She likes her Scotts Stabilizer though so it might not be as good as that. I know from riding hers it is way better than my 450 as far as stabillity goes. It also turns way better than it did with 06 triple clamps. So she may not be up to this. So I may have an xtra damper might be putting up for sale.Also here's a link to the place I got the triple clamp. Noticed they have another. I got mine for less than this so if you want to upgrade put in a bid.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA-CRF250-CRF450-CRF-250-450-CLAMP-TRIPLE-DAMPNER_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ35592QQihZ027QQitemZ400021941496QQtcZphoto

[jethro450]

Ok well that sucked! 15 minutes to change oil and re-arrange shims.... 3 hours to get that piece of crap circlip back in the main cylinder! By my own force I could get it so close but it just wouldn't quite snap in.

It took a lot of f-bombs to that job done. I finally was so pissed I made a "pusher" tool out of wood that I could fit in my vice and squeeze that mother-you-know-what back into place. Now that I have my little special tool, I think I could do it all in 15-20 minutes.

So ya, make tool or something so the job is easier.

Now that I've vented a little, here's what I did. I put 10-30 Quaker State in! Ya baby! I figure if it's that easy of a job to do (that's what I thought before I started) then who cares what oil I try.

I also re-arranged the shims as shown back a page or two.

My bike has about 30 hours on it - before I took the damper off, the bars would swing back and forth quite freely - I couldn't even tell a damper was on.

With the changes now, I let go of the bars and they slowly make their way to either end point. Major dampening going on there, at least compared to what was(n't) happening before! I'm sure it's not as good as a Scotts, but at least something is happening now.

I want something to handle desert racing, so I may end up taking off the stock damper and installing a Scotts sometime anyways, but in the mean time I'll mess around with oils and shims for a while. I may even try some 85W tranny oil, who knows.

[armourbl]

Wow! Can't believe you had such a hard time getting it back together. I did have to push real hard, but even my first time, shimming, and taking pictures, it didn't take me more than an hour to do the entire job.

Is you bike an 2009? Reason I ask is supposedly they did something new with the shim stack in 2009 vs. 2008. So I'm interested in seeing what is different in the shim stack.

ben

[samhouston]

Just changed the oil last night in my 09 450 damper to 10W. Looks like it has a lot more dampening maybe a little too much so I will see how that goes.

On another note, I read earlier in this thread about mixing 10W with 5W to get 7.5W. Is this actually the case or would the two oils seperate as the 10W would be more dense than the 5W?

[hillclimbin]

Just changed the oil last night in my 09 450 damper to 10W. Looks like it has a lot more dampening maybe a little too much so I will see how that goes.

On another note, I read earlier in this thread about mixing 10W with 5W to get 7.5W. Is this actually the case or would the two oils seperate as the 10W would be more dense than the 5W?

did u just add oil or did u mess with the shims too? Im getting ready to do mine with some maxima 20w

[samhouston]

Just changed the oil over. I dont know if I would go with 20W, the 10W seems to make a fair difference. I was even thinking of going back to 5W. Its easy enough to do though so you can try the 20W and see how that goes.

[hillclimbin]

Just changed the oil over. I dont know if I would go with 20W, the 10W seems to make a fair difference. I was even thinking of going back to 5W. Its easy enough to do though so you can try the 20W and see how that goes.

Well i need serious damping for offroad thats why i wanna try the 20w

[bb1955]

Did the stack mod and used Maxima 10W Fork Oil. Haven't ridden yet but on the stand it does feel better. It only had 9 ml of really nasty black crap for oil in it when I took it apart and like Jethro450 said, the last circlip was an issue. After pushing down with the circlip pliers and a flat head screwdriver on the opposite side, it finally snapped in. Believe it will be much easier next time. Excellent how to write-up.

[jchek779]

Something that is interesting though is the two sides are not identical shim stacks. So, I guess they expect the bars to have more resistance in one direction vs. the other.

ben

The stack is a compression/rebound stack. With the bars centered/wheel pointing straight ahead is the null position. Turn left or right and the shaft extends out of the cylinder (comp) and return the wheel to pointing staight the shaft enters the cylinder (reb). This occurs in both directions.

The reason the stacks are different is the input that causes the wheel to move from pointing straight (typically an input from the track/ground) is at a much higher frequency than the response (rider returning the bars to straight).

Great work with the write up.