Sachs Suspension Manuals

[ryanmac]

@dirtbird, where can I get my hands on this technical bulletin you mention?

[GMP]

Suspension oil ratings in "W" are a very rough apprioximation. You should go by the viscosity spec in cst@40degC for forks and cst@100 deg for shocks. You will find a huge overlap of actual viscosities across mfgs. for different rated oils. There is no need to chase down some "special" oil, equivalents can be found or mixed easily.

[Hubert Carpet]

Rocky in UK.... I guess you are located in Wales or Scotland

Neither, I'm in England. About bang in the middle with Wales to the west and Scotland to the North. Wales is WET and has a lot of forest and legendary bogs. (1983 ISDE if anyone remembers). Scotland has few riding opportunities as there is no public unsurfaced trail network available for riding. Much of the land belongs to a small number of very rich private owners who don't want the public on their land.

I live just east of the Pennines, the central hill range that forms the "spine" of England. Nothing spectacular if you are used to The Rockies or similar.

[ryanmac]

Hey all,

A frind of mine changed his suspension springs on his '13 450. The rear has 5.2 stamped on it but the AM has stock marked as 5.4 ???????

How will I know what the front springs are?

[twowheels]

Hey all,

A frind of mine changed his suspension springs on his '13 450. The rear has 5.2 stamped on it but the AM has stock marked as 5.4 ???????

How will I know what the front springs are?

IIRC 2013 4Ts got 5.2 rears, while the 2Ts sagged along with a 4.8! In 2014 the 2Ts got the 5.2 ...

[ryanmac]

Hey all,

A frind of mine changed his suspension springs on his '13 450. The rear has 5.2 stamped on it but the AM has stock marked as 5.4 ???????

How will I know what the front springs are?

IIRC 2013 4Ts got 5.2 rears, while the 2Ts sagged along with a 4.8! In 2014 the 2Ts got the 5.2 ...

Thanks twowheels. Any idea on the front springs off the 4T?

[Montesa]

Anybody ever come up with the 13 and 14 fork manuals or the TSBs?

[collinscj]

My Sacks forks were the same, doesn't seem like stiction, just seem like they have motor oil in them, get the forks revalved, your shoulders back will thank you.

The shock is ok but I ran out of adjustment on mine, FYI a KTM WP or aftermarket shock can be made to fit on the 14' 2t in about an hour.

14' 250rr

Can you be more specific? Also do you know if you can replace the OC Sachs forks with WP OC or CC, we have a race this weekend and the bike is fairly new and will not be able to get the forks done so we are looking at possibably putting the WP stuff on. Do you know if the springs from the WP OC will fit in the Sachs OC?

[Hubert Carpet]

Here's the view of the suspension guru who revolved my forks recently. He has done a lot of work on the Sachs forks to try and improve them to the level of WP units and believes that they are not capable of improvement to that level.

1. The WP bodies are 1mm larger than the Sachs so will need machining to fit the Beta yokes.
2. WP forks will mean fitting a Brembo caliper or an adapter to make the Nissin caliper fit. I don't know if that is an option.
3. The WP internals will fit in the Sachs body but I don't know if you will still need to change to the WP sliders as well. Fork bush specs may be different if you go down this route.

I'm not sure if all this is worth it. Perhaps a better route would be to try a recent set of Marazochis and try and get 1/2 way to the Racing Edition spec. Either that or going the whole hog and fitting a complete KTM front end including yokes. Sounds like the Racing Edition price difference may be good value to get the better 'Zoke forks rather than going the long way round.

I have just drained the oil from my forks after 500 miles and work commitments has meant that they have been draining for 3 days. The sludge that has come out is scary; generally a black mist suspension and some larger particles. I'm guessing that this is probably fine plastic caused by the springs rubbing against the guide on the damper assembly. Anyone else had the same?

[GMP]

Doesn't sound good. Not plastic, likely anodizing/aluminum or steel (better) from the springs/lowers. A magnet in the drain bucket will tell the story. Pull them down completely and check the internal anodizing of your uppers, and bushing condition. If its that dirty then the valving is possibly fouled as well. When I rebuilt / recoated my Zoke 48s I also polished the spring coils and honed the lower IDs. Go easy on your lower T clamp bolt torque and take care with alignment when mounting the front wheel. 500 miles is too long for an oil change on a new fork.