Front Shocks Flipped
Thursday, December 15th, 2011Factory Five issued an official update recently that informed GTM owners that we need to flip our front shocks from their inverted state, to running ‘body down’. I’m not sure why FFR’s manual had us install the front shocks upside-down to begin with, but it turns out that the Koni shocks provided with the kit must be installed body-down. Failing to do so can cause them to, over time, operate as if there was no oil in the shock cylinders. I think this explains why the front of the GTM is so sensitive.
After removing the shocks I had to disassemble them so I could do a ‘reset’. This involved holding the shock upside down, compressing the shock, then flipping it over and manually extending the shock. This was repeated until the shock offered resistance through the whole range of motion. The first 4-5 times doing this the shock would compress half way, then suddenly snap to the top/bottom of its range of motion. Essentially, the shock, while running inverted, was offering no dampening once it got around half-way compressed. Not good.
Now I just have to wait for spring to arrive to see how much the ride handling will be improved.