Blew up my tappered NR4... What now?

[whisperdancer]

Last night, my NR4 from the '97 Animal lost almost all the oil. Now it makes a "squish" sound every time it compresses and rebounds. The rebound and compression knobs don't work anymore. I just have the spring working.

What now? Is it better to get a new shock? Fix this one? I'm not spending much money on a new one, as I prefer to spend it on a new bike...

I believe fixing it will cost arround 60 euro here in Portugal. But hey, it's a noleen... would it happen again over time?
Buying a risse or a stratos would be interesting, but only if it was a good deal... which is difficult to get.

Another possibility was to get a shock not made for Proflex, and make an adapter for it. Would it work well? Is it safe? How about the lateral forces in the adapter and the shock? A bolted solution is always different form a casted or a welded one...

I wouldn't like to get rid of my 'Flex, but I'm getting tired of leaking shocks or blown ones...

Any help, guys?

Regards, Ricardo.

[martin73]

cant help but if you go down the modified mount for a non proflex shock let us know as in the UK the risse and noleen service agent is no longer trading, so be interesting to see what other options are out there.

Saying that i need to get my lardy arse back in the saddle after many many moons rather than sat here  

[shovelon]

Too bad that your shock is gone.

I have a modified 957 strut to accept a manitou swinger by welding plates to it. Many others have made bolted adapters that have a cone on one end and a clevis on the other to hold the shock. That way you could adapt most any shock that comes your way.

My manitou air swinger 3 is 7.5 inches i2i with 2 inches of stroke. Works amazing. Cost used was $50.

Terry

[Colin]

Just bolt a "U" shaped bracket onto the strut and then bolt any ordinary shock to the U bracket...........

i.e. 3 holes in the U Bracket, one in each vertical for the shock through Bolt and one in the base to bolt the bracket to the strut.

By making the uprights on the "U" longer or shorter, you can probably match any shock length to the Animal.

Obviously this part has to be pretty robust, not just a piece of bent aluminium...........A  "U" shaped ally casting would be good.

Col.

[whisperdancer]

I would modify the strut if I would have a spare one. If something went wrong, I still would have the old one.
Do you have pictures of your mount, Terry. The gallery isn't working...

Concerning the adaptor, the cone shaped end is ok, but the clevis still has one degree of freedom, has the shock can still rotate. I know it is still locked in the rotation direction, but it seems a little dangerous... I believe the shock yould suffer from bending...

[shovelon]

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1036595/957strutmounted.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1036595/957Swinger.JPG

Hope these work for you.

Terry

[Colin]

Great Job Terry!
But, Ricardo, if you don't fancy the welding option because of "risk" or because you havn't got anyone to do the welding then try the "U" shaped bracket option.

Just imagine exactly what Terry has done only as a seperate piece bolted onto the end of the strut, then if you need to, you can at least remove it.

Col.

[whisperdancer]

Terry:

Did you have to cut the gussets on the frame to adapt dhe manitou? In the second photo it seems that some metal is cut off...

[shovelon]

I machined a channel for each plate to fit into. Then I welded the gussets in.

Frankd3000 has made cone adapters, Junkster had done like Colin has done also. That the channel that Colin has described would not work for me because I wanted the end of the shock to seat right into the tapered hole.

What you need now is pictures. Anyone? Dang those hackers.

Terry

[whisperdancer]

I was asking about the aluminium plates on the frame..

[shovelon]

Good eye!

Yes, I did shave some of the frame shock plates to tuck the shock into. Fits just perfect now without losing much reinforcement.

Terry