Rear covered shock rebuild
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:24 pm
I thought I would share my experience with rear covered shocks on my ‘66 Monza Jr. As some may have read in my other post on rebuilding front forks, I have no builds or major maintenance I am doing during this winter. I wanted to put some TLC into the little Jr and suspension is last on the list for this bike being completely rebuilt.
Onto the rear shocks.. I have been looking for how to rebuild and or find replacement shocks which still have vintage style / looks. Most of the sources have been out of stock, further looking I found reproduction Triumph covered shocks made by EMGO (part 003110). They have 100lb springs and need larger bushing to fit onto bike, no issue finding 12mm bushings on Amazon ($6 shipped). The old ones had chrome coming off which is why wanted replaced.
The reason for the post is to share how to disassemble for those wanting to refinish shocks. First step is removing off bike. What I had read before was compressing shock and turning gets cover off. This is incorrect, the lower chrome piece needs to be pushed to the top of the fork. When doing this it exposes to half moon clips fitted into grove of the shock body. While the chrome is pressed up against the spring, use a screwdriver and they pop out. This leaves chrome, spring and upper cover loose from each other. Here is a pic which shows (tough to see) groove in between spring.
From here you can see two holes in the top which is a cap threaded in securing the valve body. I made a tool using 1/4” steel and two holes with 1/8” pressed in roll pin. This unscrews the cap and allows disassembly. This is filled with oil and requires some force to pull apart.
There is a 12mm nut at the bottom of the piston which when breaking loose you can pull all pieces apart.
My next step since I have replacement ones is to just sandblast, paint, refill oil and have on the shelf. Hope this is informative for whoever next is looking to do this.
Onto the rear shocks.. I have been looking for how to rebuild and or find replacement shocks which still have vintage style / looks. Most of the sources have been out of stock, further looking I found reproduction Triumph covered shocks made by EMGO (part 003110). They have 100lb springs and need larger bushing to fit onto bike, no issue finding 12mm bushings on Amazon ($6 shipped). The old ones had chrome coming off which is why wanted replaced.
The reason for the post is to share how to disassemble for those wanting to refinish shocks. First step is removing off bike. What I had read before was compressing shock and turning gets cover off. This is incorrect, the lower chrome piece needs to be pushed to the top of the fork. When doing this it exposes to half moon clips fitted into grove of the shock body. While the chrome is pressed up against the spring, use a screwdriver and they pop out. This leaves chrome, spring and upper cover loose from each other. Here is a pic which shows (tough to see) groove in between spring.
From here you can see two holes in the top which is a cap threaded in securing the valve body. I made a tool using 1/4” steel and two holes with 1/8” pressed in roll pin. This unscrews the cap and allows disassembly. This is filled with oil and requires some force to pull apart.
There is a 12mm nut at the bottom of the piston which when breaking loose you can pull all pieces apart.
My next step since I have replacement ones is to just sandblast, paint, refill oil and have on the shelf. Hope this is informative for whoever next is looking to do this.