2015 ES Shock removal

[Mudslide Miller]

Don’t know if there was more than one thread about this but I saw nothing about the o-ring. This was the thread I found.
viewtopic.php?t=6757
I watched a couple of YouTube videos about it & they said to just reuse the o-ring. What was your take on it Jasen?

[raYzerman]

You can likely clean it with some success until you get a new one...... it is difficult to say why they fail, it's just a plastic block with contact pads in it, joined to wires somehow.... interestingly enough, the Yamaha folks zip tied the wires close to the sensor, presumably to prevent vibration......

[Mudslide Miller]

Delayed posting on this due to extreme weather in Phoenix and no riding. Got my bike all back together with the rebuilt shock from EPM. I took it for an initial ride to go refill my gas tank; only about 8 miles round-trip from Greg‘s house and I had a couple of faults initially, more to do with ABS. I chalked it up to removing everything and reconnecting. The ABS fault fixed itself during my ride, and hasn’t faulted since. Took it back to Greg’s to replace the front tire after he returned from Europe then on my ride home, which is only about 5 miles from his house, my suspension faulted, and would not allow me to set preload or change dampening on the fly. I shut the bike off on the side of the road and restarted and it seemed to clear up. I have only been able to go out one other time for a long ride and everything was perfect. No faults on the suspension or ABS anymore. But have only gotten that one ride in; again due to the extreme temperatures. Will find out more when things cool down. I had my outer spring on the shock increased to a stiffer spring, and it all feels pretty good.

[raYzerman]

Looking forward to hearing how the shock performs with the new spring......
When you initially finished the shock install, did you reset the preload home position? Interesting you had an issue, and it cleared itself up........

[Mudslide Miller]

Before I removed the shock I had set the preload to single rider with no luggage, as the service manual had instructed to do. My presets for damping prior to removal were Hard +3, Std 0 & Soft -3. When I started the bike for the first time after reinstalling, the preload was still at single rider with no luggage and the damping was at Std 0 but my soft & hard presets were wiped out so had to reset them. On the single long ride I did, I switched the damping multiple times and it all worked OK.

After reading what you sent on the diagnostics picture and looking at photo that I took when my suspension faulted I actually did get fault code number 94, which is indicating at the bottom of the screenshot you sent that I may have tried to change the suspension within the five minutes from when I left Greg‘s house and initially activated it so that must be why it cleared itsself after that.

[Hppants]

Does all of this imply that you didn't really have a problem?

I'm asking for posterity - I can see myself reading through this entire thread when it's time for me to send my shock off (likely 4 years or more from now).

I didn't realize that you have to set the shock at a certain preload before removing. It might (would) be helpful if there was a "list of dos/don'ts) for this job.

[Mudslide Miller]

As of now I would say I’m not having anymore problems but won’t really know if I will have any more intermittent faults until I can get more riding in. As I had stated, I have been unwilling to ride due to the beautiful heat in Arizona. Whenever you are going to have to do this job, just follow Craigs previous posts and videos and for sure follow the instructions in the manual. It tells you in there about setting your shock to the standard setting at zero prior to removal. Once a few more of us have accomplished this there will be more advice on here about the do’s and don’ts. I would certainly offer up my two cents along with Craig for anyone that has questions about it.
And trust me, if I can do it, then anyone with any mechanical ability could accomplish it also. I am just very slow and methodical when I disassemble stuff, bagging up all the different bolts separately and taking lots of pics and videos to help remind me where they came from. I also made my own quick list of the order of disassembly so that I could just reverse it when putting it back together. It is a lengthy process, but very doable and saving you a shit ton of money of course
I will also give props to EPM and their support staff. I spoke with them multiple times while they had my shock there, and were always willing to answer questions.

[raYzerman]

Well, I am interested in hearing how the new HyperPro progressive spring works compared to the old..... I had experimented on my Versys in the interests of science... by installing a heavier straight rate spring, and it wasn't ideal. I was always "anti-progressive" and annoyed that HyperPro won't publish their spring rates, but I figured I'd try a HyperPro.... I'd say it was a better spring rate than stock, and in this case, it helped with the crappy rebound ajuster on the OEM shock......

So, I'm imagining certain things now, but I don't want to put words in your mouth...... I don't know what preload setting you normally ride with (one up), and what it feels like on that setting now.....

[DesertBike]

This is fantastic, what a wealth of information. Exactly what I will need when I send my own shock into EPM for servicing.

For me it's about getting a shock that can better handle the loads needed. My fat butt weighs more than Yamaha intended, and the stock spring is not adequate for us two-up, especially with luggage.

Clicked over 30k miles recently on my 2015 -ES model, so it's time to see if my shock has become leaky.