Rear Shock

1985 RZ350

Rear Shock Install

I found the only way to get the shock in to the swingarm was by removing the rear wheel and the plastic inner mudguard and inserting it in from behind. The reservoir makes it too big to insert the way the old one came out. This may be because I have an FZ600 swingarm, but I am guessing the RZ one is similar.

Once the shock is vaguely in place raise it up and you'll find that the adjustment screw and hexagoonal collar hit the RZ frame mount. Carefully note where you need to remove metal and use a small Dremel to take away only what is needed. I was not quite sure if the hexagonal nut needed to be turned so I placed a socket over it and made sure it would be able to turn. This may weaken the frame mount too much and you can reinforce it as needed, but I decided to leave mine and see what happens.

On the other side it just clears under the mount without any modification required.

With the top mount in place you can measdure and cut the plastic inner mudguard so it clears the reservoir, and a little extra space because the shock does move a little.

At the lower end, fit the original oil seals that came off the RZ shock. These have to be stretched a little as the flange is 1mm bigger than before, but they do fit eventually.

Grease the pivot and move the cast dogbone in to position. Then slide the 24mm original sleeve through the dogbone and the lower shock eye.

Place the original RZ oil seal over the end of the dogbone....

..and try to offer up the relay arms. On a normal RZ it should be no problem, however I found the FZ600 relay arm hits the bottom clicking ring of the R6 shock.


So with a little measuring you can grind off just the area where it hits the shock. On mine this made the area where the bolt connects the two halves too thin for the thread to bit so I left the connector bolt out. I can't see it doing a whole lot anyway but I guess now we'll find out.

So with a little measuring you can grind off just the area where it hits the shock. On mine this made the area where the bolt connects the two halves too thin for the thread to bite so I left the connector bolt out. I can't see it doing a whole lot anyway but I guess now we'll find out.

For adjusting the rebound, the bottom clicker is easily reached under the bike (pipes are not on).

The compression damper adjustment is a little hard to reach beyond the oil tank, however if you remove the right hand side oil tank retaining screw it pivots just enough on the remaining screw to get a better shot at it.

...and I am pretty sure the pre-load clicker will be adjustable from behind. The adjustment instuctions from Yamaha are on the resources page. I did notice that the rear height of the bike has been increased by 1". When I put the bike on the stand the rear wheel used to be 2.5" off the floor but with this conversion it is now only 1.5" off the floor. Not a big deal but it does affect trail and rake slightly.

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