Opinions are not allowed

And Swooshdave is here to promote merchandisers selling less than quality merchandise. How do you like that, Davie Boy?

Mine are so difficult to move that at first I thought the grub screw was what moved. Mostly because the rebound one moved so freely (the grub screw in the brass piece).

When I finally figured out that the whole brass piece had to move, it took so much effort that it raised every mechanical sympathy red flag I have and it was actually painful on my hands (due to the small diameter allen). It was also impossible using the short end of the allen as the "lever" side.

I will admit that I think Don's talents would be better served doing something that doesn't involve customer service. I do not want the Landsdowne dampers to go away. I want them to be evolved and well supported.

I currently own at least 16 adjustable dampers on various cars/bikes. I know what an adjuster should feel like. I work on them all the time. These are not that.

Don's attitude and refusal to deal with the issue resulted in where we are now. I'm just the guy that brought it up. And again, my issue is not the parts, it's the lack of standing behind those parts.

PS: If I was fixing this I would simply make the brass pieces taller and knurl them.

LAB - just watched your video! Thank you!

Mine are nothing like that. You'd twist an allen that long trying to turn mine. What you showed would be impossible on mine. It's also worth noting that my rebound grub screw is (and always has been) absolutely free to make one turn - which initially made me think that just the grub screw moved.

Hi

I hope an administrator can take the good bits of this thread and give it a new name so we can search it in future. " Fettling the dampers ;-) "

I own several of Don's products. The one piece axle, the dampers and his throttle linkage. A year back he was all cheerfulness and light. More recently not so much. I just figured he was having a bad week. After working 40 years in the oil and gas exploration industry and being yelled at as a new grad by Scottish tool pushers my skin is a bit thick ;-)

Anyway I have never had the grub screw issue although adjustment on mine is much tighter than in LAB's video. Looks like the dimensions of the o ring is important here.

I had a couple of other problems. The first was my own doing. The units were bought early in 2019.

As installed I had too much sag so I decided to add preload spacers. There is an aluminium collar threaded on the damper rods and held in place by loctite. I removed this to install spacers and then realized its location is critical in setting the adjustment range. The top pieces are all located with respect to it so if its wrong the brass adjuster will make up at the wrong height. At worse you could damage the adjuster by tightening it too far down.

So measure its location very carefully if you ever need to move it. Don't mix up any parts and look out for those tiny springs which seem to have a life of their own and I swear must have legs as they always seem to be hiding on the other side of the shop under boxes that havn't moved for years !!!!

So after a bit of communication with Don I got that sorted. This was my fault !!!

The other issue was I had a loud clanging noise under compression. I found witness marks from the spring hitting the inner rod.The spring may have been hitting the stantion as well. This occured with and without the preload spacers and could be easily heard riding down the road.

Turns out one of the springs had badly squared off ends and was twisting over. Squared them all off with v block and a grinder. I also machined some tephlon sleeves and pressed them tightly on the rod. Two on each rod in the middle range where the witness marks were. Again you have to take off that aluminium collar to do this so measure its location !!

Now it all works fine.

I guess I should add that the English invented the trade of "Fitter"

In WW 11 Merlin engines made in the UK were all assembled by fitters. When they started making them in the US production engineering quality standards were such that they could be assembled by production line personnel.

Production Engineering was what made America great.

But given we are working with old Brit bikes it is kind of to be expected that some "fitting" will be involved. ;-)

JimC said:

And Swooshdave is here to promote merchandisers selling less than quality merchandise. How do you like that, Davie Boy?

Click to expand...

Less than quality? I didn't hear anyone complaining when John was making the same thing. Why is that? What is different?

Jim, if you don't think there are quality parts out there why don't you make them and show us how easy it is. We'll sit here and wait.

Only Don and JB know if it is a grub screw and I don't have time or the need to look.

It might very well be a capscrew threaded into the top of the adjuster rod, that makes a lot more sense based on the hex size.
A 2.5 mm hex grub screw would leave a small wall in the adjuster rod.

I have come to the conclusion with the JB inserts that the execution of that cap and adjuster is fine, simple but effective engineering that has a clean look to the upper face.
I am in no doubt the firmness of turning due to the O-Ring is to stop the adjuster moving in use.
It just needs to have lubricant.

Whatever is in there can not back out on the JB version I have as the top hole is a drilled hole little bigger than the hex (clean look)
The rod is most likely threaded into the brass adjustment rotater coming up under the shoulder of the top hole so is going nowhere and whatever the hex is can not come up either.

If it was a grub screw (I now think unlikely due to lack of material to thread it into) and it was loctited but broke away and the threaded hole it is in is deep enough it could go down and then be floating,is that what happened ?

THE THREAD STARTER HAS STILL NOT SHOWN WHAT ACTUALLY FAILED THAT I CAN SEE, LIKE THE OLD SAYING, WITHOUT PICTURES IT NEVER HAPPENED.

I ALSO THINK THERE IS NO WICKING LOCTITE INVOLVED, FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW WICKING LOCTITE IS USED ON AN ASSEMBLED FASTENER AND IT WICKS IN TO THE THREAD.
I WILL WRITE IT BIG FOR THE OLDER OR FOLK WITH BLINKERS ON.

Plain to see on the JB insert there is no thread in that drilled hole.




I still 'dig any form of hands on engineering as much now as my first day on the job in January 1976.

Here is a quick idea of what I think is in there.



I'm off to the garage.

That may certainly a grub screw threaded up from the bottom into a slight shoulder, so it could exit the bottom on install if not loctited in, as Kyle reported?

Some facts. (1) the design of the Lansdowne Dampers has not changed since I took over production and I certainly wont be changing the design. (2) the brass adjuster body is threaded from the underside but not all the way through so the grub screw can not come out the top or come out the bottom as the long needle is screwed in from below capturing the grub screw. If the Loctite fails then the damper can still be adjusted, the only difference being that the grub screw can turn freely no more than 1/4 turn either way before it bottoms or tops out, and normal adjustment can be made. (3) I make 5 adjustments to the adjuster on assembly before shipping . I'm not likely to ship the dampers if the grub screw is loose. How Kyles grub screw came loose can be left to your imagination. remember he purchased these 1 year ago (4) nearly 200 sets of dampers have been sold by me using the same Loctite . (5) most of the issues I have with the dampers are from people not paying attention to the supplied instructions and attempting to dismantle them for whatever reason ,curiosity I guess (6) like all social media there are always keyboard commando's who have nothing better to do than attempt to discredit others for no other reason than it makes them feel good (7) For those who say I never offered to help Kyle with his issue then little do they know about my conversations with Kyle in addressing his issue. well I have a whole bunch of emails to prove that wrong. I advised Kyle to use a drop of 290 wick in Loctite on the adjuster, but his following 3 replies consisted of the following hence he is off the Xmas list "fuck you" "Asshole" and "Pissants like you build busted shit and get tired of being called on it. Your tiny dick ego cant let your believe your shit needs work. So you get get all "hard" via email.
Good luck with being a second rate machinist dick head who never makes it."

TW and i posted same idea.

gortnipper said:

That may certainly a grub screw threaded up from the bottom into a slight shoulder, so it could exit the bottom on install if not loctited in, as Kyle reported?

Click to expand...

No. it can not exit from the bottom as it is trapped by the long needle which is threaded in from beneath. so at worst if the Loctite breaks free, then there will be no more than 1/4 turn either way before the slack is taken up and normal adjustment can be made.

I did consider a grub screw in the method mentioned (as it is done it seems) I think JB would have done what should be foolproof and that should work but not the way I would do personally.

I now see where the wick in reference came from.
Heat the brass cap to weaken any remaining loctite on the rod thread, disassemble carefully, use green loctite and it will never back off.

It is very foolish to post anger in the written word especially if you are a slow typist.

" (5) most of the issues I have with the dampers are from people not paying attention to the supplied instructions and attempting to dismantle them for whatever reason ,curiosity I guess "

or adjusting sag.

johnm said:

" (5) most of the issues I have with the dampers are from people not paying attention to the supplied instructions and attempting to dismantle them for whatever reason ,curiosity I guess "

or adjusting sag.

Click to expand...

well they are not adjustable for sag . they are supplied with standard springs which suits 99% of the people .

I miss that popcorn smilie.

madass140 said:

Some facts. (1) the design of the Lansdowne Dampers has not changed since I took over production and I certainly wont be changing the design. (2) the brass adjuster body is threaded from the underside but not all the way through so the grub screw can not come out the top or come out the bottom as the long needle is screwed in from below capturing the grub screw. If the Loctite fails then the damper can still be adjusted, the only difference being that the grub screw can turn freely no more than 1/4 turn either way before it bottoms or tops out, and normal adjustment can be made. (3) I make 5 adjustments to the adjuster on assembly before shipping . I'm not likely to ship the dampers if the grub screw is loose. How Kyles grub screw came loose can be left to your imagination. remember he purchased these 1 year ago (4) nearly 200 sets of dampers have been sold by me using the same Loctite . (5) most of the issues I have with the dampers are from people not paying attention to the supplied instructions and attempting to dismantle them for whatever reason ,curiosity I guess (6) like all social media there are always keyboard commando's who have nothing better to do than attempt to discredit others for no other reason than it makes them feel good (7) For those who say I never offered to help Kyle with his issue then little do they know about my conversations with Kyle in addressing his issue. well I have a whole bunch of emails to prove that wrong. I advised Kyle to use a drop of 290 wick in Loctite on the adjuster, but his following 3 replies consisted of the following hence he is off the Xmas list "fuck you" "Asshole" and "Pissants like you build busted shit and get tired of being called on it. Your tiny dick ego cant let your believe your shit needs work. So you get get all "hard" via email.
Good luck with being a second rate machinist dick head who never makes it."

Click to expand...

Thanks Don, nice to have the other side of the story though I don't think quoting the nasty replies was necessary

madass140 said:

well they are not adjustable for sag . they are supplied with standard springs which suits 99% of the people .

Click to expand...

Up this page John mentions messing with his dampers to adjust the sag.

acadian said:

Thanks Don, nice to have the other side of the story though I don't think quoting the nasty replies was necessary

Click to expand...

I do.

So far we've just seen surly comments from the OP. This just reinforces it.

For those of you defending the OP, would you have behaved the same way?

As far as springs and sag, a thicker spacer at the top would do that replacing the stock one, of course with the tight winding of the spring you might want to watch out for coil bind so a replacement higher rate spring is probably better.

The JB inserts had you fit your own springs so you had to remove the upper cap anyway, there is probably some vender relief selling the insert ready to fit with the springs already in place.

Ohh well, good bye thread starter.