hoser - was looking at your rear shock rebuild page and would like to change the oil in mine.


1. How does the can cover come off? is it threaded or pressed or what?

2. How did you recharge the bladder with nitrogen?

just thought i better understand whats involved before i tear em apart.

Caps are just a dust cover and press in, they are made out od tin and easily damaged,
use a SMALL hammer, smallest you have like a ONE ounce hammer, most tack
hammers are too big, and a sharp stiff paint scraper TAP it out you will have to
hold the scraper at about a 90 degree angle to the rez so you can catch the
edge and tap it out, if you damage it you still can straighten and use again but
if your careful then you wont damage it at all.

I have the nitrogen tank, regulator and required fittings to recharge it, I bet if you
call around a local cycle shop will recharge them for you for about 10 bux each.

Follow me?

Here is the link to the Oil Change Stock Pilot Shocks for others.
http://pilotodyssey.com/oilchange.htm

thanks hoser - i sure wish i lived closer to you. i would much rather pay you to recharge them.

you guys live in the same state, that's a good start.

Work Hoser hard, I bet he will rebuild or recharge your shocks but I doubt he would solicit you to send or take them to him. Its hard to find someone that pays such attention to detail as hoser does, latch on and don't let go.

my rears were a breeze, the gunk that came out was ugly, i was glad i did. i was lucky to come acroos a nitrogen bottle many years ago that I use to fill from, its still full, most motocycle ATV shocks use a very small amount. you can get the full set up for under $200.00 if so inclined


Options

K here is where i start some shit (and a discussion of info )

hopefully the dark side won't start selling it

First off quality nitrogen is the best. end of story but

the air we breathe is like 70% nitrogen, 19.5% oxygen, some CO, Argon and i have no clue what else, my beer farts?

You can use regular air to fill your shocks, this is a typical practice for bleeding or when your vavling a shock to work better. Most important is that the air is dry. a normal compressor's air isn't the best for this cause hot compressed air has increase moisture, air should be dry dry dry 175psi is a good baseline

You can use any dry inert gas as well, like from a mig tig welder

CO2 / argon or either works, do not use oxygen or any flamable gases

well i changed oil and let the sit several days with the bladder out, sliding then in and out several times each day, so any air would work its way out. i then filled the cans with about 2" of oil (with the shaft fully extended) and slid the bladder back in. this allowed the oil to overflow and hopefully remove any trapped air. tomorrow i take them in to be charged. 190 psi sounds to me to be high, but i know you (hoser) know what your talking about.

while i've got the rear shocks off i had better pull the half shafts a give the a good inspection. i know the grease could use a changing. hopefully the boots and splines are in good shape.

Damn so a hydrogen, acetylene, oxygen mix is not advisable?

Uh Oh.

Once you get all the air out you extend the shaft fully then adjust the oil level to
1" about 2" is not right...

hoser - wouldn't the excess oil just flow out and fill ay of the air gap around the bladder? then when the bladder is charged the oil in the gap would just work its way out of the gap? i thought this would be a better then leaving a air gap around the bladder. doesn't the air cause the shock to fade? what do you think? i could still remove the bladder and lower the oil to 1". my guess is its prety darn close to 1" as it is.

just explaining my thoughts and picking up on your experience since you are the only guy i know who has ever done this.

I set them to 1" because that is the level I have found all the Pilot rear shocks I have worked on,
no chance for any air to get in your valve body and fade unless your running upside down,
I doubt you will see air migrate down since it is lighter than oil, I have never felt any
fade before or after the oil change, in my research to find a better oil viscosity for better
dampening control I would abuse the Pilot for a while on jumps and whoops then drain
the oil out and try something thicker, I never seen any air bubbles in the oil...

The more oil you put in the shock the higher the compression ratio will be as the shock
is compressed and the shafts mass displaces the volume of oil in the shock body,
when this happens oil is forced up into the rez compressing the bladder and
nitrogen, too much oil might make the shock stiff as hell as you approach the end of
the stroke. You seen the oil level change when refilling the shock and trying to get the
air out? I forget the level change for full stroke but I think it was about 1"..

You can try your setup see how it works? If they are stiff remove some oil?

..

if 1" works for you i will stick with that. thanks hoser.

Hi: Know that's one old post, but.....please can you tell me how much oil I need to refill the shoks? please in metrical or decimal....

Best regards


Pepetio

Once you have change the oil and refilled with new, stroke the shock 20 times to get all the air out then adjust the level in the rez to 1" or 25.4mm with the shock shaft fully extended.

Follow me?

http://pilotodyssey.com/oilchange.htm

Ok, thanks a lot Hoser, as always.

Best regards

Pepetio

The change wasn't huge but the oil that came out sure was old and nasty looking. I'm sure you would see a greater change if performace with a new set of shocks, but that's not cheap. Changing fluids is part of regular maint, so i was not really expecting a gain in performance. I spent less then $50.00 to do this and would engurage any pilot owner to do it. A big thanks to Hoser for having instructions and photos of this on his site.

Did you end up using just air from a compressor for the baseline 175 psi or actually nitrogen?

nitrogen - took them to a local bike shop.

Thanks. I have a local shop around the corner.

Hi hoser i was just reading your post on changing the rear shock oil on a set of pilot stock rear shocks as i am in the process of doing just that (ps great post )
Can you tell me have you tried to get the piston out of the shock housing
Mine look to be leaking a bit of oil and i was wondering if it would be possible to replace the shaft seal
After i got one of the shocks apart i noticed that the collar that holds the piston in the shock housing has a notch in it like the type you would find on a hydraulic cylinder .
Do you think that the collar might unscrew so you maybe could even service the piston seals and o- rings
Please let me know your thoughts
Or if any one else wants to jump in here
I would greatly appreciate any feed back
Thanks regards
Danno

Hey Hoser,

I know you do Engine rebuilds for $$. Any interest if I sent you all four shocks to rebuild. Just let me know $$.

If not interested I understand.

Thanks EZ

The stock front shocks are sealed and not serviceable, the rears you can service like change the oil http://pilotodyssey.com/oilchange.htm we even found seals for them http://www.pilotodyssey.com/PO/viewtopic.php?t=3109

Are your shocks leaking?

Are your shocks leaking?[/quote]


No, I have works on the machine now, Just keeping these for spares. But thought it would be a good idea to service them. I'm just slammed with work this winter and looking to have them done by someone experienced in the procedure. Thx EZ

I can do them