I was speaking with Jon at Motopro about replacing the springs on my klx and he mentioned that I would probably have to have a shop change the spring because it would have to be recharged with nitrogen after disassembly. When I was speaking to the dude at my local shop he said the bottom spring retainer might have a key-way so that i could just depress the spring and remove the bottom spring cup and then replace the spring. Not that I dont believe Jon- he was awesome on the phone and working on an 06 klx250s as we spoke but my local guy brought up a good point. Has anyone done this themselves? FYI I'm a larger dude, 230lbs and mostly ride hard street (jumping stairs and curbs, local winding roads, etc.) and the bike is just way too soft. THX!

 

I've haven't changed the spring on my KLX yet but I have on KX's and alot of other bikes and have never had to recharge the shock. Unless the KLX is really different for some reason all you have to do is remove the shock, loosen the preload lock ring, back the adjuster ring off until the shock spring is no longer compressed, remove the spring cup, take the spring off. Reverse the above process and then set your preload correctly for your weight. The service manual should cover the procedure. I'm sure there must be a thread or an article on this on the net some where. Good luck.

 

I changed my own spring, I followed the instructions in the service manual. I would have to look it up I don't remember what they were.

 

You can change the spring yourself, if you have a service manual. It's easy and takes about 1/2 hour at most.

1 Put the bike on a proper stand
2 Remove the seat, side panels
3 Loosen the spring compressor nuts (the notched rings on the shock) as much as you can
4 Remove the rear dog linkage bolts
5 Remove the shock bolts
6 Pull the shock out the top of the frame (you'll have to twist it a bit as you pull)
7 Loosen up the notched bolts all the way
8 Push the bump stop (little rubber piece on the shaft) up a bit
9 Rotate the shock cup until its easy to work on and remove it and the other pieces
10 Slide the old spring off
11 Slide the new spring on
Now do step 9 through 1 to reassemble

(that's from memory from last year so don't quote me on those steps)

 

thanks guys i appreciate it!

 

It's as easy as reported already.
To get the shock off, you'll have to remove some of the other suspension links so you may as well do a lube job on those while it's apart.
Don't be surprised if the new spring is a different length than the stock one....it's a different length on the KLX300.

After installing the shock, be sure to set your sag to 1/3 of the rear travel with you on the bike.

Ride on
Brewster

 

+1 on lubing everything up when you have it apart. I even dropped the swing arm as long as it was that far apart. Sure was glad I did.

 

good point on lubing, im coming up on 4500 miles so i need to go over the bike again anyway

 

Sorry to thread jack,

On the lubing end, I have an 07 and I cant find any grease fittings anywhere.

What should I lube, How do I do it? How often should I lube?

 

The lower bellcrank attaching the swingarm and the shock is the primary stuff you want to keep clean and well greased. I've had mine and the steering head bears out, and Kawasaki is really really skimpy on greasing those bearings. They were greased, but barely. Also, the dust seals aren't particularly whiz bang either. I do mine once a year, after the riding season. It's not hard to do the rear linkage at all. Easier than the head bearings for sure. Just start with removing the wheel, and progress through it. Take the dog bones off, take the shock mount bolt out, etc. It's come right out. I always remove and clean up the swingarm pivots also. I use a waterproof grease, obviously, in my case, I like a moly lube. I make sure the underside of the dust seals are packed well with grease also, not just the bearings themselves. I can wipe off the excess on reassembly, and any excess will act as a dust trap before the dust can get into the bearings.
I don't have the torque values, sorry. I torque the swingarm bolt up tight, then back off a little at a time until it swings freely, but no more than that. If that makes sense.