Earlier this week Ron took his bike for an MOT and got the advisory that his front shock appeared to be leaking oil.
Bouncing the front end vigorously indicated that there was no damping in the front suspension. Time to replace the front ESA shock unit.
The front shock is buried out of the way somewhere between the battery box and the back of the headlight unit. The main fairing panels including the tank and nose fairing have to be removed. Headlight and speedo unit have to come out. The REPROM then says that the lower wishbone rear pivot shaft has to come out. With this removed, the whole front wheel assembly and wheel carrier is jacked up allowing the shock to be removed after taking out the upper and lower bolts.
Problem is that I didn't have the special socket for the lower wishbone rear pivot shaft locknut or the device required to raise the front wheel and wheel carrier up and out of the way.
Instead I took out the front wheel and mudguard. I then removed the front wheel carrier (forks) by removing the ball joint nuts. With the radiator cowl removed I was able to ease the shock out after removing the top and bottom bolts.
Replacement unit now fitted and Ron has damped front suspension again. Bouncing up and down is fully damped and Comfort, Normal and Sport can be felt with the engine running.
