BenG
ClioTrophy Moderator
Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to strip down my spare damper to see the inner workings and also see if I could find out why it had gone ‘soft’.
I really had no idea what to expect as ive never seen the insides of a Remote Reservoir Damper before but I did have a picture in my head of how I thought it might work, As expected it was a lot different to how I imagined!
First of all I had to depressurise the damper so it didn’t go bang in my face, but more importantly so it didn’t fly across the garage and hit the car. I just pressed on this valve:
The bottom then had to be pressed inside slightly to allow me to remove the metal ring, removing the ring allowed me to pull the bottom part out of the Remote Reservoir completely.
The Remote Reservoir is divided into 2 chambers separated by a sliding seal. The bottom chamber contains the pressurised gas; the top chamber contains some of the oil.
The Remote Reservoir can then be removed completely. At this point I got covered in oil! :
The whole top adjuster was removed the same way as the bottom, by pressing it in slightly and removing a metal ring.
The sliding seal:
Now that everything was removed I got interested in how the adjuster worked so began to strip it down and figure out how it worked. Ill try to explain it the best I can.
This is the adjuster on the ‘soft’ setting:
This is the adjuster on the ‘firm’ setting:
As you can see there is very little movement from the fully ‘soft’ position and the fully ‘firm’ position.
The hole in the middle is where the oil flows through when the piston is compressed. On the rebound stroke the oil flows through the 4 small holes, it’s a set rebound.
This is the part that resists the oil flowing through the hole. It sits over the hole.
When you turn the dial to the ‘firm’ position the spring is compressed which in turn puts more resistance on the oil flow creating a firmer damper.
So there you go….
Unfortunately I couldn’t strip down the main part of the damper as you need a special tool. If anyone wants to lend me one that would be good. I couldn't find any problems inside the Remote Reservoir so the problem must be inside the main part. Dodgy seal I would imagen.
Ben.
I really had no idea what to expect as ive never seen the insides of a Remote Reservoir Damper before but I did have a picture in my head of how I thought it might work, As expected it was a lot different to how I imagined!
First of all I had to depressurise the damper so it didn’t go bang in my face, but more importantly so it didn’t fly across the garage and hit the car. I just pressed on this valve:
The bottom then had to be pressed inside slightly to allow me to remove the metal ring, removing the ring allowed me to pull the bottom part out of the Remote Reservoir completely.
The Remote Reservoir is divided into 2 chambers separated by a sliding seal. The bottom chamber contains the pressurised gas; the top chamber contains some of the oil.
The Remote Reservoir can then be removed completely. At this point I got covered in oil! :
The whole top adjuster was removed the same way as the bottom, by pressing it in slightly and removing a metal ring.
The sliding seal:
Now that everything was removed I got interested in how the adjuster worked so began to strip it down and figure out how it worked. Ill try to explain it the best I can.
This is the adjuster on the ‘soft’ setting:
This is the adjuster on the ‘firm’ setting:
As you can see there is very little movement from the fully ‘soft’ position and the fully ‘firm’ position.
The hole in the middle is where the oil flows through when the piston is compressed. On the rebound stroke the oil flows through the 4 small holes, it’s a set rebound.
This is the part that resists the oil flowing through the hole. It sits over the hole.
When you turn the dial to the ‘firm’ position the spring is compressed which in turn puts more resistance on the oil flow creating a firmer damper.
So there you go….
Unfortunately I couldn’t strip down the main part of the damper as you need a special tool. If anyone wants to lend me one that would be good. I couldn't find any problems inside the Remote Reservoir so the problem must be inside the main part. Dodgy seal I would imagen.
Ben.
