S2r removing Tie rod to adjust height

[ripit007]

 S2r Removing Height Adjust Tie Rod
Trying to adjust height. Able to get the lock nuts loose but the rod itself is pretty bound up. looks like I'm gonna have to remove rod to make adjustments. A few questions:

1). How hard is it to remove?

2). After suspending rear of bike, I assume I will have to loosen the rear shock spanner nut to relieve spring tension first. Is this correct / necessary?

3). What is the stock length of the tie rod? How many treads showing above lock nut? The height on this bike was lowered by previous owner, I need to raise a bit, at least to stock height.

4). Any tips on doing this procedure?

Thanks in advance!

[stopintime]

The rod is not greased from the factory, but it SHOULD have been - not unusual that it's stuck.

You don't have to release the shock preload.

I haven't done it myself, but it's more involved than it's complicated.
Can you let WD40 work on the treads and try again after a day?

The rod can be set anywhere between 270 and 285 mm. Delivered from factory at 273 = one tread visible in each end (1.5mm each) As you can see, it can't have been lowered more than 3 mm, but that equates to about 12 mm at the wheel.

[Jarvicious]

From personal experience:

Go into this project calm.  It can get irritating.

- If at all possible, take the rod out of the bike.  I tried and tried and tried and tried to loosen the lock nut, but it was way too bound up to work on while it was on the bike.  There is just to much stuff in the way, though YMMV. I had to get it put up on the work bench, put a 17mm wrench (if I remember) on both the lock nut and the main rod body and push in opposite directions.  If you have the patience/ time make sure and give it a good soaking with pb blaster or WD40 a few times a day for a day or two before you try and break it loose.  Like Stop said, add some grease before you put her back together.

- The ratio of ride length to ride height adjustment isn't 1-1.  If I remember correctly, it's a 3-1 thing, so if you lengthen the linkage rod by 3mm, the ride height goes up 9mm.  Don't take my word for it though, hopefully one of the other big wigs will chime in.  I may have that reversed. 

- I had to unbolt the upper part of the shock in order to get the rocker arm adjusted so I could get a wrench on the upper bolt of the linkage rod.  The whole thing is bolted together right where the frame narrows (under the tank mount) so it's kinda tough to get a wrench in there.  It's been a couple of years so I can't really remember the order I did it all in, but just make sure you remember what order you did it in so you can do the same thing backwards.

- Remember to grease your bolts before you put them back in.  My rear end is still squeaky

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't putting the bike up on a rear stand be no different from leaving it on the ground?  Either way, you're going to have a substantial amount of weight on the rear end which is going to end up putting pressure on the rod and lock nuts.  I had mine on the bike stand, front wheel in the chock with the rear end lifted via scissor jack so I could modulate the amount of pressure being put on the rear suspension linkage.  That definitely made things a lot easier in both removing and reinstalling the whole thing, so I don't know any other way to do it.  Either way, good luck 

[BK_856er]

I don't know if it's different on a single-sided swingarm, but on my bike I put a metal rod through the engine case pivot and rest the protruding rod on jackstands on either side of the bike.  This supports the rear off the ground.  Then I use a lab scissor jack to support the rear wheel and modulate the rear suspension load.  Note that the adjuster rod ends are threaded in opposite directions.

BK

[MonsterHPD]

I don't know if this is still "open", but anyway: If the rod ends are really stuck, the aluminium in the rod will deform before anything loosens. So, this is how I do it:



Make sure the sockets are big enough to rest on the solid part of the rod end, and make sure you have a really tight grip on the nut. If the nut goes, it's cheap, the rod itself has become really expensive after some price adjustment Ducati did some years ago. One rod I had was so bad that half the alu thread came out on the rod-end like an Alu heli-coil; that's when I found out about the price "adjustment" .
   
Remember also, the rod end and nut with the grooves on the hex is a left-hand thread.

[ripit007]

Thanks for the tips.  Im gonna have at it this weekend.