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Now we'll disassemble the compression valve. The bolt is very tight, and there's
no good way to grip the aluminum valve body, so I put the bolt back in temporarily
and tightened the bolt with an allen wrench just sligtly to break the bolt.
Next I removed the bolt from the bottom and clamped the valve in the vise (with rag)
and loosened the bolt.
The original valve stack will come out. You will no longer use this.
I've got my Gold Valve stack prebuilt according to the instructions. Put some
Loctite on the threads. NOTE: the instructions say to put a brass washer on the base
of the valve stack. My kit didn't come with any brass washers, but came with 4 steel
washers. I called Race Tech and they told me to use one steel washer on each fork. This
should be enough to keep the Gold Valve from moving up and down on the base.
Now install your valve stack in the aluminum base.
Torque the bolt down to the specs in your instructions. Be very careful! The bolt
Is hollow and brass, and can easily strip or break!
Now that the valving is installed, carefully push it up in the tube. Be careful
not to damage the o-ring! Now reinstall the circlip and use the damper rod to
push the compression valve back down all the way. install the aluminum spacer
on the end. There's a recess in the spacer that goes toward the cartridge.
Now put the cartridge into the lower fork leg. Remember: you should no longer use the
plastic piece or its circlips. It will interfere with the new springs.
You can use your pinky to guide
the spacer and cartridge into place through the bottom hole. Hold the cartridge
in place with one hand, and start to screw the bolt in. Tighten the bolt down
with a socket, pushing up on the cartridge with the other hand if necessary to
keep it from turning.
**Note! if the adjuster screw at the bottom of the bolt
is turned too far out, the bolt gets too long and will not tighten down on the
cartridge. Don't ask how I know this!**
Now it's time for spring spacers. As you can see in this photo, my stock spring is
a couple inches longer than the new Race Tech spring. I need to make a spacer that
makes up the difference to make the spring/spacer length the same as stock. The
Race Tech springs came with spacer material, but it was too large in diameter for my
forks, so I went to the hardware store and bought a couple 15" long 1-1/4" sink pipes.
I measured the difference between the old and new springs, and measured my spacer
material to see how much longer it needs to be than the original. I used a pipe cutter
to cut the spacer material to the correct length. A hacksaw would work here too.
Next the spacer needs to be drilled on both ends like the original. This is important
for fork oil to be able to fill the spacer. I used a center punch to mark the spot,
then started with a small bit.
Then I used a large bit to widen the holes.
