emulator questions for joe nardy, posplayer, and saltymonk

[greg78gs750]

Or anyone else who has put in emulators. Just finalizing my assembly here, wanted to confirm a few things.

1. I have drilled 1 set of holes, that is 2 new holes total, above the "oil lock" step in the damper rod. correct?

2. I do NOT need to provide an oil path in the block off plate i am installing in place of the antidive unit?

3. Should i use o-rings to seal that plate, or will a "gasket material" gasket do?

4. what does the adjustment knob on the bottom of my forks do, both before and after anti-dive disable and emulator adjustment.

my laptop died, so i can only be on the forum at work. guess my productivity is going to be down this week.

thanks for all the help, all!

greg

[salty_monk]

See my add-ins below. I am using forks from a 83 1100E with the rebound adjustment on them.

Or anyone else who has put in emulators. Just finalizing my assembly here, wanted to confirm a few things.

1. I have drilled 1 set of holes, that is 2 new holes total, above the "oil lock" step in the damper rod. correct? *** Depends see 2

2. I do NOT need to provide an oil path in the block off plate i am installing in place of the antidive unit? *** You DO need to provide a path unless you drill holes below the Oil Lock step as well as above (that's what I did & it's working great).

3. Should i use o-rings to seal that plate, or will a "gasket material" gasket do? *** Up to you. On my 750 I just stuck a smear of Gasket goo on them. On the 1100 I have an O ring. I can't see why a gasket wouldn't work either.

4. what does the adjustment knob on the bottom of my forks do, both before and after anti-dive disable and emulator adjustment. ****Adjusts rebound (ONLY). After fitting emulators it still works exactly the same as before. Emulators work on the COMPRESSION damping circuit ONLY. (Common mistake with emulators is that people believe they control both circuits).

my laptop died, so i can only be on the forum at work. guess my productivity is going to be down this week.

thanks for all the help, all!

greg

Emulators take the Compression damping out of the fork piston & transfer it to the emulator valve (which is infinitely adjustable within reason). This allows independent tuning of Compression circuit & rebound circuit. On most forks you must tune the rebound circuit using oil weight & then re-adjust the emulator valve to match. On the 1100 fork you can use the stock rebound adjusters.

I use 2 turns on the emulators (Mikes XS not Racetech but I believe Joe used two turns as well), 43.5lb straight weight springs (0.8) & 10wt oil filled to stock height.
Basically zero preload. I have my rebound adjusters set at "2" currently.

I am 162lb & this is on my Skunk (with fork brace & using Roadrider tyres at 32PSI).

[Joe Nardy]

I did not block off the anti-dive units, just removed the hydraulic line and plugged the banjo bolt hole with a regular bolt. I am using Progressive springs, a bit more than 2 turns and 20 wt. fork oil. It is a bit stiffer than I'd like but I prefer that to too soft. I will probably swap to 10 wt. oil and see how that feels.

Thanks,
Joe

[greg78gs750]

i have 2 sets, 4 holes, below the oil lock step already. racetech instructions say to enlarge these to 8mm. will do. not providing a passage/no oring simplifies machining the block off plate. not retaining the a-d unit because i dont need it, it is extra weight, and with the twinpots etc i am not worried about stock look anyway. i have progressive springs, going with no spacer, 2 turns on the emulator, and 10 w. oil. racetech says to call for oil level?

i am still trying to understand how all the parts down there WORK, both before and after emulator install. what does that little aluminum oil lock DO? and those cute little washer/spring things? anyone know of a cutaway picture of these particular forks? i have seem generic damper fork diagrams, but not with all the oil locks and everything in place. maybe i should wade through my service manual? Thank you for all the help, folks!

btw, i got an email from motoworks chicago re the track day, woot! thinking about going down sunday as well for the trackday then, make a trip out of it!

greg

[Dogma]

...
i am still trying to understand how all the parts down there WORK, both before and after emulator install.
...

I found this link helpful when I started thinking about emulators. I haven't done it yet, but it's been on my mind.

[greg78gs750]

hi dogma,

i have seen that one, i really want to see something that has the oil lock cup and all the doodads included, more for my own knowledge than anything related to the emulator install. if you are considering emulators, i got mine for less than 80 bucks shipped off amazon (i had to sign up for their visa card, which i promtly cut up). but that is a GREAT price, esp compared to the 170 listed at racetech.

I found this link helpful when I started thinking about emulators. I haven't done it yet, but it's been on my mind.

[Dogma]

That is a good price. They're on my to-do list, but I need to get rid of the MDI shocks first.

(Don't forget to mail a cancellation letter to Amazon's visa card department. Cutting it up doesn't keep it from being a credit liability.)

[John Kat]

I recently upgraded my GSXR 1100 G ( 1986) fork on my GS 1000 XP with RaceTech emulators and .95 kg/mm springs.
Initially I enlarged only the 4 holes and added two more below the oil lock cup.
The reason I did this was to ensure the hydraulic lock would still operate.
Guess what, it doesn't work
I have special anti-dive plates with an oil passage.
The fork is now dismantled and I'm adding 4 more holes above the oil lock cup.
I'm also eager to understand the exact role of the shims below the oil lock cup

[salty_monk]

There is a flow diagram in the manual. I believe they are there to divert oil through the anti-dive unit probably.

If you drill holes above & below you do not need a passage in the plates but you will not hurt anything by having one if you want to play it safe...

Wish I took some pictures... More holes is better than less.

Emulators work best with straight weight springs. For my 1000 the Progressive go to 50lb (1.0) when the coils bind so if I was going to use them I would just cut the close wound springs off.

[greg78gs750]

i was expecting to see straight-rate springs when i opened things up, i was surprised with the progressives. i thought it might have to do with anti-dive, i wondered if the oil lock could be deleted with emulators. guess i'll have to download the manual to my work computer...

greg

[salty_monk]

Not sure about that...

The stock springs for that fork were Progressively wound so don't automatically assume you have "Progressives" just because the springs you have are progressively wound...

I had to cut mine down to about 14" to get an acceptable straight spring rate that didn't need "air assistance".

[Charlie G]

I just ordered and recieved emulators from Mikes XS and they were $61.00 and change shipped. Waiting for Suzuki parts now.

cg

[greg78gs750]

nice price on the mikes. i would have gone that route but i would have had to machine an adapter, +time and +money.

i am "pretty sure" they are progressives, headed on vacation today but when i get back i will measure etc to confirm. definitely thicker material than the stock springs. I think thecafekid put them in there, i need to pm him to see if he remembers the specs.

greg