New Lansdowne damper installation

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Tom P

Tom P

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I have recently installed a set of new Lansdowne dampers in my 72 combat. I have noticed that there seems to be very little/no rebound damping. The Compression damping adjustor work fine, screwed in all the way the forks are almost rigid, on the down stroke, but even with the rebound adjuster screwed in all the way the forks spring back like zebadee and top out. I'm using 150ml of Castrol 10Wt fork oil in each leg. and have gone thru the priming process (unscrew 3 turns on each adjustor and pump the forks 10 times)

I am assuming that the rebound should be very slow when the screw is all the way in. Or am I mistaken
Cheers
Tom
 
I would not say it is "very slow". It is smoother, however. You may want to try and prime them again, I had to do it more than once the first time.

Also, depending on your weight and riding style, Castrol 10wt may be thin. I used that the first time with my Lansdownes and the ride was very harsh. I had to go to a thicker 10wt (since there is no standard viscosity between brands for similar weights as there is with motor oils). I use Bel Ray High Performance 10w now with good results.
 
gortnipper said:
I would not say it is "very slow". It is smoother, however. You may want to try and prime them again, I had to do it more than once the first time.

Also, depending on your weight and riding style, Castrol 10wt may be thin. I used that the first time with my Lansdownes and the ride was very harsh. I had to go to a thicker 10wt (since there is no standard viscosity between brands for similar weights as there is with motor oils). I use Bel Ray High Performance 10w now with good results.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, I have some Bel Ray 10W on order and will try it when it arrives
 
I use PJ-1 brand oil in my Landsdowne dampers. I started with 30w (too stiff), tried 5w (too soft), 15w (just right).
As the installation directions state, the rebound adjuster only needs to be turned out 1/4 turn. Believe that. I rode
about 500 miles before I got my set dialed in just the way I like. For further confusion/clarification read the attached article.
No two brands of fork oil are the same. And, yes, the priming procedure is important.

Suspension Fluid - Pvdwiki

www.peterverdone.com www.peterverdone.com
 
Couple things I remember of install , first off , got rods mixed up , my solution at the time was to simply call John Robert , his wife answered and told me it was tea time , once she realized I was overseas , JRB was there setting me straight ! …. other was that , plus couple other things transformed my front end to close modernish? action …. A little adjustment makes big changes , unlike some front ends that supposedly adjustable but really not much variance until ya get into the high end stuff … The Landy internals are great upgrade !
 
I had a similar problem with no rebound dampening at all. Turned out the brass adjuster on the rod was bottoming out on the tube before the rod reached the bottom. You need about 1 mm of clearance when the rod bottoms out. I adjusted the amount the rod screwed into the brass adjuster and locktighted it in place.

Now when I fully screwed in the rebound adjuster the forks were essentially locked. I was then able to screw out the adjuster a suitable amount and it all worked fine.

Compression dampening was always fine.
 
The alloy needle top nuts are mated to the Damper Cartridge so ensure they do not become mixed up.
 
Has anyone fitted Jim Schmidt's Turcite bushings with the LD dampers. I'm not sure about installing the aluminum stanchion sleeve with the newer madass LD dampers
 
Yes, no problems. I’ve only done a few thousand miles since so can’t comment on longevity.
 
gortnipper said:
Just the bushes for me, IIRC, the sleeves are for limiting the klunk with stock dampers.
Click to expand...
Yeah, just not sure if they were needed for the newer Lansdowne dampers though. It seemed like the older lansdowne dampers may have had topping out issues as well, but i have not seen anything definiative on the newer madass dampers. I'm going to assume that Don fixed that problem
 
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