Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

50 miles from home, one of my front shocks came apart. After a bit of head-scratching, I realised the upper mount would engage with the threads on the piston rod, so I removed the shock, pushed the spring down a bit, pulled the rod up as I tightened the upper mount to try and stop it rotating and got home OK. There I pushed the cover down enough to get a 10mm spanner on the flat on the rod and tightened it properly.

A few weeks later, and miles from home, it came apart again, this time the bottom thread. Practise makes perfect and I got home and tightened properly.

If you're concerned about scratching the paint, this is not a good method, but if you just need to get home, some old-aged muscle and a 10mm spanner is enough.

Charlie.

Two great points made by James-
Years ago, when a shock rod backed itself out of the top mount on a ride, the roadside repair was carried out utilizing the screwdriver method, and as James and Charlie have suggested it's not very forgiving on the paintwork.
Then at a later point when a shock disassembly was necessary and a proper tool wanted, I was looking for some metal to use for the end plates, because vehicle tools are metal, right?
Plywood was what was on hand and used, and as James noted, turned out no worries about the paint finish.
Using either 2x material or plywood would work equally as well, as most common versions of both are softwoods and so paint friendly.
Happy Healthy Holidays-
George

My 6' 4" son and I rebuild the shocks on my R60/2 using this very complex and sophisticated method:

We clamped the bottom mount in a vise and my 6'4" son compressed the top of the shock enough for me to get a wrench on it.

dosgatos wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 2:06 pm

My 6' 4" son and I rebuild the shocks on my R60/2 using this very complex and sophisticated method:

We clamped the bottom mount in a vise and my 6'4" son compressed the top of the shock enough for me to get a wrench on it.

Can I borrow him??

I'm only 6'2", so you've got a bit of wriggle room.

Charlie.

well...I finally got around to making my Shook compressed....a little rough but it works.

Also had a shock rod backed itself out of the top mount
I rode the bike with side car back home
Put some lock tight on mount when I reinstalled shock rod
Tommy

I designed and built this shock compressor tool many years ago. It works great! The levers cam over and keep the shock compressed while you remove the upper shock eye. Behind it, on the work bench, is the original factory tool. It doesn't work worth a damn. If you are only doing this job on your own machine, it hardly warrants the time and effort to duplicate what I did. Since I operated Bench Mark Works for 24 years, I needed a tool that would compress the shock quickly and repeatedly with no problems. A HINT for those of you who are restoring a bike, irregardless of what method you use to compress the shock. Take a sheet of typing paper, and wrap it around and put a piece of tape on it, to protect the polished (new?) aluminum cover, before you assemble the shock. That way, you will protect the cover from getting scratched during assembly and you can remove it after your finished.