Got my progressive springs But.......

[Guest]

I really need some advice from someone who knows the 82-83 GS 1100 GL. When I took the stock springs out of the fork tubes, I find that the old springs are longer than the ones I ordered...The ones I ordered say that they are for the GS 1100 G, I called progressive and they don't have any documentation denoting the difference between the bikes. I called Suzuki and the parts guy told me that there is a different part number for the GS 1100 GL.

I have watched BassCiiffs Tutorial, and the difference between his and mine, are that, his new spring were longer and he only had to use a 1.75" spacer...So, the questions are, are the springs I have the correct ones? Do I just measure the difference between the old springs, plus the spacer, to make a new spacer? Which would make my new spacer 5.5 inches in length. Doesn't seem quite right to me... But, maybe it is correct...Progressive springs I bought are part number 11-1106. Any clarity would be much appreciated.

[Toasty]

I never got Progressives, but the Sonic springs I bought for my 550 were nearly half the length of stock. It took a massive spacer but they worked as advertised.

[bwringer]

The length of the spring is entirely irrelevant.

Make spacers so that the spring ends up with the correct amount of preload when the caps are installed.

[Meriban]

That makes me feel more comfortable about such a big spacer...I wonder about noise.

[Meriban]

I figured if I took the distance between the old springs, plus the length of original spacer, that should put the preload at the same height as the original springs.

[bwringer]

You're making this complicated. There's no need to do math, and the length of the old spacers bears no relation to what you'll need with the new springs.

Raise the front end.

Drop the new springs in.

Stick a length of your spacer material in the top.

Mark it so that with the caps installed you'll end up with about 3/4" (19mm) of preload. Depending on the length of the caps, this may end up a bit below the lip of the fork tube.

Cut two spacers that length.

Button it up, then recruit a friend to help you measure static sag. If the sag measurement is too high (more than 25-30mm), try slightly longer spacers. If the sag measurement is too low, try slightly shorter spacers.

Ride happy.

[Meriban]

A simple and elegant solution, thanks bwringer. I will do that today.