proflex 4000 shock positioning

[loaded]

 [smiley=beer.gif] First of all big thanks to everyone on here for helping me get my old proflex 955 back in one piece early last year.  Since then it has been inherited by my brother & is scaling the hills of Wellington in New Zealand.  

Now I've fallen in love with a 1998 proflex 4000.  But I'm a bit confused about which way up the rear shock should go???!?!? I think it's a stock Noleen NR-5 but after checking out some of the pics and files on this site I think it's upside down, & there list little clearance between the frame and oil reservior.

I've uploaded a pic of how it is currently set up? Should I reverse it??

http://idriders.com/proflex/files/right%20way%20up.jpg

What would a k2 guru do?
Cheers
Luke

[BFG]

The owners manual shows it mounted like yours, so I would leave that way.
Of course the manual also says to never jump your bike as well [smiley=laughing.gif]

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Yeah, the owners manual does show it that way.  But I'm getting confused as this article shows the opposite!

http://idriders.com/proflex/files/page_2.jpg

The reason I'm concerned is the oil reservior & dampening control looks like it could impact on the frame if I take a little drop off!

[Simon]

Leave it as it is,it will be fine,also mounted the other way dirt/mud/grim can collect on the shock body against the shaft unless you cover it,note you have a Noleen Nr4 shock not an Nr5 that is the smart shock,the only issue I had with the Nr4 is the spring (1.75 450lbs)rubbing through the reservior,keep an eye on the clearance.
Simon

[Old Proflexer]

Simon -

for the nr-4 rub, take an old handlebar grip and cut about a 3/8" (7-8 mm) slice.  put the piece on the nr-4 reservoir and slide it up to the top of the spring.  you may have to rotate the spring in doing so.  set the rubber strip near the top where the top two coils come together.  use a little windex or such on the reservoir to help slide the grip piece, the windex will dry and the pressure against the spring will hold it in place.

that will prevent the rub and noise that comes with it.  i may have some pics in my gallery of that - don't remember - yeah, here's one.



OP

[Matno]

The reason I'm concerned is the oil reservior & dampening control looks like it could impact on the frame if I take a little drop off!

Counter to intuition, the reservoir actually moves DOWN - AWAY from the seatpost when the shock is compressed.

[guy]

Dose is perform differently, when the shock is the other way (reservoir down)

[Simon]

Simon -

for the nr-4 rub, take an old handlebar grip and cut about a 3/8" (7-8 mm) slice.  put the piece on the nr-4 reservoir and slide it up to the top of the spring.  you may have to rotate the spring in doing so.  set the rubber strip near the top where the top two coils come together.  use a little windex or such on the reservoir to help slide the grip piece, the windex will dry and the pressure against the spring will hold it in place.

that will prevent the rub and noise that comes with it.


OP

OP, yep I remember a posting about that fix,I had my Nr4 replaced under warranty not long after I got my bike, since then when I preloaded the spring I just made sure there was a large clearance at that point,if not I just turned the spring (not the preload adjuster) usually 1/2 to 1/4 of a turn,this usually gave me sufficiant clearance,the spring diameter appears to be a bit large for its seat and can move around on it,I've not had any trouble since (around 4yrs) but for a year now I have been running with an astro5  ,though the Nr4 is still going strong on my son's Oz,there not a bad shock really it only blew a seal once in that time and a full overhaul didn't cost much.
Simon

[bikendan]

  ;Dluke, i have the same bike and mine was originally upside down. i saw a tech from k2 at the sea otter and he flipped it the way yours is. he said some of the frames had the shock mounted upside down and he said that your shock position was the proper way.

[loaded]

 [smiley=beer.gif]Cheers for the advice guys.
I have kept the shock as it is but have taken Simons advice about protecting the oil reservior as there was already some spring damage evident.  I have also covered the whole lot in a armidillo boot to keep it crap free.

Yesterday I stripped and regreased the crosslinks & the smartshock.  The seals look a little worse for wear but have a little life left in them.  Shock is in A1 condition though, so i booted it up using a couple of sections of old innertube before reassembling the whole thing.
After adjusting the front & rear sag the bike is behaving like a totally different beast!

The bad news is that I have spotted rubber seals protruding from the inner sides of the main pivot.  I presume these are the infamous quadrings!! [smiley=disbelief.gif]
So it looks like I have to take the whole thing apart to sort it out! [smiley=dead.gif]

Can you replace these things with industrial o-rings or should I be trying to get my hands on a pivot rebuild kit from k2? (I'm in Australia btw- so that could be hard!)

[Scott]

O-rings have been matched at the hardware store by other posters here and you should have no trouble doing the same though I'd try the factory replacement route first.  Also, the Crosslink pivots like synthetic grease-regular grease swells the plastic bushings, passing this along just in case....