Rear Elka Too slow... help!

[dericsdad]

Need help/advise for our rear Elka shock. Valving was perfect before we installed 3 spacers to shorten the shock shaft so we could get the ride height lowered. Installed 3 of the 1/8 inch shims we got from Elka between the seal head and last spacer on the shaft... and ever since it has been waaaaay to slow for the rebound. had to run it 10 clicks in before, now all the way out it still packs up in the whoops! took it all apart... rechecked all shims and the valve for bing in correct, completely bleed it out with new elka oil... still too slow! ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS???

This is a rear shock, stage 3 with compression/rebound adj. on a Yamaha Blaster with plus 3 swingarm.

Thanks, Dan

[dustin_j]

I will try to give you some ideas, but it's hard to know for sure without knowing more about the setup. Are you using the same spring? Are you using a single rate or dual rate spring setup? How much preload did you have on the spring before shortening, and how much after? If anything changed with the spring setup, it would affect rebound since the rebound valving controls the spring.

If you remove the spring and cycle the shock on the bench, does it feel different than it did before? Sometimes the rebound check ball can hang up and keep the rebound circuit closed (slowing rebound). Many people remove this check ball to prevent the hangup, although it's an interesting idea to lessen low speed compression bleed.

Other things to think about are how much you changed vehicle geometry when shortening the shock. Are you sure shortening was the answer to lower ride height, or maybe the spring was too stiff? Have you verified frame heights at front and rear shock top out and bottom out? What is rear sag and front ride height? I hope these ideas help.