Here's one suspension novice's experience at installing Racetech Gold valves. If you know more than I do (likely), please correct me.

This is not a job to be undertaken lightly. You'll be disassembling things not intended by Honda to be disassembled. Sometimes it will require carefully applied force. If you mess a part up, it's likely to be annoying/expensive to replace it, because they're generally not sold seperately. Cleanliness is VERY important. A hair, or a tiny bit of dirt, caught in a shimstack, will make your carefully considered decision whether to use a c34 or a c35 stack a bad joke.

VERY STRONG WARNING: Most importantly you're messing with suspension. ANY mistake could cause a crash. I haven't REMOTELY put in everything here you need to be careful about. I'm strictly an amateur, don't trust me to tell you what to do (I'm serious). It's just one guy's experience, you must make your own decisions. ATTEMPT THIS JOB AT YOUR OWN RISK.

If you've never removed the Allen bolt at the bottom of the forks below, it was easier for me to break them loose on the bike before doing anything else. PROVIDED that the bike is securely supported. If you take the fork off first, the Allen bolt is your first step. It takes a lot of force (or an impact tool). I used "Moby Crescent" (20") on a high quality Allen wrench, which twisted a truly amazing amount before the bolt broke free.

You'll need a vise with soft jaws for many operations. You'll have to choose where to hold thoughtfully, some parts here will not like being squeezed or scratched at all. Some "sticky" deals:

Removing the lower oil cap. It will likely be stuck. I used a crescent as an improvised hammer driver to tap it off. Removing the compression valve. I threaded the Allen back in and pulled. It was hard. If I was doing it again, I'd lock a fender washer on the Allen and use the improvised hammer driver trick again. On the rebound valve, the nut that holds it together is secured by the threads being peened over. You'll need to file that off precisely (and you'll still mess up the top thread removing the nut), and then chamfer the top thread edge with a file for reassembly. BUT, when you reassemble it's still tough. The peening likely has distorted a few threads. It would be laughably easy to crossthread the nut putting it back on, regardless. The result would likely not be a cheap fix.

Why disassemble the rebound valve? Assuming you have stiffer springs, fixing the compression damping witthout appropriately increasing rebound is a very bad idea.

Buy a cheap digital caliper to measure shims (Harbor Freight?). Ultimate precision is not required, just convenience. The big problem is that the shims stick together, and it's not easy to tell if you're holding one or two. Also you need to be able to tell a 0.15 from a 0.10, and a 16 from a 17.

When you're putting the valves back together Racetech is VERY insistent about the need for locktight. I wouldn't recommend going against that on the advice of any individual on the Net, no matter how trustworthy. But if EITHER thread is oily (and they both will be) applying locktight will not work. At all. Clean both threads with solvent and dry. DO NOT get locktight where it doesn't belong. Racetech is also insistent about proper torque, and I also recommend paying attention to that. It may require purchase/rental of a suitable wrench. Most of us do not have a torque wrench that will read that low precisely. It pretty much has to be a dial wrench so you can watch the fastener come up to torque smoothly, I can't imagine trusting a clicker here.

Contrary to what I've read, Racetech's instructions were not bad at all. But they leave a lot out, like how to disassemble your suspension or how to hold things in a vise. It's not a follow the numbers deal. The official Honda Shop Manual is a requirement, as is some talent for mechanical work.

If any of this strikes you as ****, give the job to a qualified professional. Racetech certifies installers. This is a job requiring ****.

I'm very pleased with the final results. It's not often you can improve brake dive, handling, and ride simultaneously. Significantly lower costs than a fork swap (which can give even better results), easier in some ways, harder than others.

Don't rush. I took a long time, stopping whenever I was the slightest bit tired of the work, and checking everything extra times.

 

nice write up, great to take the time to do it. you might read it again carefully and probably find some places that aren't as clear as they were in your head, like where in the process you are picking up certain descriptions. any pics ? would help to insert.

I think an impact wrench, even the simple, cheap, hand-held hammer type make removing that lower allen a snap. Also on the rebound-side threads, using the correct die to clean up the threads prevents worrying about cross threading too.

 

You could have saved yourself a lot of work by first whacking that bolt to loosen the threads. I have a hex wrench that I cut the short side of the L off so that it's straight. I smack the bolt with 10 sharp blows from a 5lb brass hammer before I even try to remove it. I then use a 1/4" drive ratchet (that's right, a small one) to remove the bolt. Sometimes they are still a little tight, but rarely do I have problems.


This is called the compression valve assembly, not a 'cap'. You should press it inwards into the cartridge tube first. Then I take a straight deburr tool and make sure there are no burrs or sharp edges around the retaining ring groove. This is probably where your problems were. It seems like VTR forks are especially bad for this, I don't know why. If you would have cleaned up this area you could have tapped it out using the damping rod.


Thanks for the write-up!

 

Thanks for the thread thing, I spent a lot of time threading the nut back on, being very careful to keep it square.

I actually spent some time reworking this. I realize it's not a complete step by step, but I think my points are in the correct order. It's just not possible to tell someone how to do this in a few words, or even a few pages (the Racetech instructions). All I was trying to do was to cover some sticking points I had, and how I solved them for myself. And maybe give someone contemplating this some clue about how difficult it would be for them personally, given their particular level of knowledge/ability.

 

Thanks. Just the kind of thing I was hoping for.

Again thanks. But I'm talking about two different things. Removing the cylindrical piece that covers the bottom of the cartridge (which I thought was called the oil cap), and then removing the compression valve.

I really appreciate everyone's additions. I know how little I know about this, which is one reason it was hard for me.

 

Are you talking about the bottom out cone? It's a tapered aluminum piece that goes on the outside of the cartridge tube. Those can sometimes be stuck, but often just fall off (usually they stay inside the forks). The function of this part is to engage the parts that are assembled into the fork stanchion tubes (the chrome upper parts) to create a cushion when the forks bottom out. If you've ever slammed the forks hard and it sounded like something inside hit metal-to-metal it really wasn't, it was this piece causing a hydraulic lock so that no internal parts get damaged.

 

I think so. On mine, both of them came out on the end of the cartridge when I pulled it out of the fork, and were stuck on beyond my power to grab and twist with my hands. They didn't look like something you wanted to grab with a vise grips (and maybe deform the cartridge, too), so I did the improvised slide hammer thing, which worked well for me.