steering damper fitment

[ozzraptor]

It's probably worth your while trying to make your own rad guard, have a look at the early stuff in my minor mods thread for materials.

It's possible I've hung my damper incorrectly, looking at it now it seems there is just a flanged not above the mounting hole, while below the mounting hole there is a flat washer, the link to the "universal joint", then a crown washer, and finally the bolt - is that incorrect?

My damper didnt have the spacer (no. 12 in pic)there and it wasnt very straight, i am thinking this may cause extra stress on the fork clamps if the damper is not in proper alignment. I found a spacer (10mm) in the shed and everything seems to work as it should and it also looks straight. I guess it would be very easy to loose that spacer if taking the damper off for any reason. ( and harder to put the thing back in)

[Spyke]

Ah, I see, it's an "internal" spacer - I don't think that piece is missing from mine, everything fit snugly, IIRC. Will check it out some time!

[Miz]

It's probably worth your while trying to make your own rad guard, have a look at the early stuff in my minor mods thread for materials.

It's possible I've hung my damper incorrectly, looking at it now it seems there is just a flanged not above the mounting hole, while below the mounting hole there is a flat washer, the link to the "universal joint", then a crown washer, and finally the bolt - is that incorrect?

Not sure, but does this help??

http://www.oemmotorparts.com/oem5.asp?M=Cagiva&T=X-TRA RAPTOR 1000&Y=2000&L=CA-RAP-1&O=STEERING DAMPER&F=CA-RAP-1_CO&L2=CA-RAP-1_CO

[Spyke]

Well I had some minor issues recently, may as well write them up here in case it helps someone. My bike was feeling a bit odd, when taking off gently, very like there was a couple of litres of gunk in the front tyre that was slopping gently from side to side. No issues when actively steering, but gently pottering thru built up areas the sway was noticable. One guy reckoned it was the steering head bearings, but when I got to a mates garage and suspended the front we noticed there was a definite drag turning the bars right to left, between about 2 and 12 o'clock, that wasn't there turning the other way. Closer inspection revealed that the gubbins was catching on the back of the headlight assembly at that point, and then the push rod in the damper was activating. Took the damper off - bike rode fine. Put the damper on again - bike rode fine! So when I knew she was gonna be off the road for a few days I took the whole assembly off again and refitted with medium-duty threadlock. Looking at the pics again I have a washer missing, part number 13, so I'll add one of those in the future as I'm due some fork TLC. And if anyone has an unused damper baffle sitting in their shed then let me know as I'm in the market!

[Spyke]

Even with threadlock I got the swaying, turns out this was my first experience of steering head bearings going!
We had tightened the central nut, but although I thought I saw it tighten less than 1/8 of a turn my mate said he thought it hadn't moved so that's why I didn't mention it.

Stripped the front end and the bearings didn't seem too bad but there were definite marks from the rollers on the cups, and a small but definite notch at 12 noon, changed the bearings and all is good again, thanks to all who've posted bearing part numbers and bearing tips previously, it's much appreciated. I wonder if the steering damper puts extra pressure on the bearings?

[Spyke]

Well my head bearings have been lovely jubbly, but now I think the damper might have gotten tired - it's a pig when cold, but heats up and frees up about the same time as the 3k glitch goes away. I've cleaned the bugs off the pistons, which does seem to help a bit. I'm kinda hoping it's oil-filled and the oil's taken 11 years to go bad...

Does anyone have any advice on how to "re-oil", or otherwise refurbish, the Xtra's OEM damper, before I go ahead and take it apart and probably break it?!
The more I look at my assorted gubbins the more I think it's been assembled incorrectly by those muppets in the ACT...

[V4mp]

Well my head bearings have been lovely jubbly, but now I think the damper might have gotten tired - it's a pig when cold, but heats up and frees up about the same time as the 3k glitch goes away. I've cleaned the bugs off the pistons, which does seem to help a bit. I'm kinda hoping it's oil-filled and the oil's taken 11 years to go bad...

Does anyone have any advice on how to "re-oil", or otherwise refurbish, the Xtra's OEM damper, before I go ahead and take it apart and probably break it?!
The more I look at my assorted gubbins the more I think it's been assembled incorrectly by those muppets in the ACT...

I'm not sure about this, but I've heard that not every steering damper are rebuild-able. I dont have xtra or steering damper so its hard to say... If it is there should be screw where you drain old oil, check this öhlins manual out!
http://www.rogueracing.org/dk/sdwm.pdf

[ozzraptor]

Well my head bearings have been lovely jubbly, but now I think the damper might have gotten tired - it's a pig when cold, but heats up and frees up about the same time as the 3k glitch goes away. I've cleaned the bugs off the pistons, which does seem to help a bit. I'm kinda hoping it's oil-filled and the oil's taken 11 years to go bad...

Does anyone have any advice on how to "re-oil", or otherwise refurbish, the Xtra's OEM damper, before I go ahead and take it apart and probably break it?!
The more I look at my assorted gubbins the more I think it's been assembled incorrectly by those muppets in the ACT...

Good question, it doesn't feel like my damper offers much resistance even with the front jacked up, might be time for an oil change. I had a ducati damper that i got rid of awhile back and it looked identical

[Spyke]

It's nice to know duke do a similar damper, if it turns out ours aren't unserviceable.

My damper has never offered any significant resistance until very recently, and the last three runs I've been on did seem to indicate the problem is only there until everything warms up. The problem doesn't come back if I just stop to fuel up but it does come back after a prolonged lunch stop, but only briefly. So I've pretty much convinced myself it's an old oil problem and I just grit my teeth and ride through it. But last time I was out we actually stopped first at the end of a pretty narrow but windy single track road and riding back through it was quite traumatic so I promised myself I'd take it off at the next stop. Of course it was fine again within a couple of minutes and I never actually got around to taking it off till I planned my next ride.

I found 5 minutes to look at it today - there's no Secret Squirrel Business hidden behind the clamp on the barrel so tomorrows task it RTFM that V4mp kindly linked and work out how to remove the internals from the sleeve. It doesn't slide freely but with a slightly scratchy/squelchy noise happening inside. There's clearly no oil leak but I do seem to detect a slight aroma of burned oil but that might be wishful thinking.

[V4mp]

My damper has never offered any significant resistance until very recently, and the last three runs I've been on did seem to indicate the problem is only there until everything warms up. It doesn't slide freely but with a slightly scratchy/squelchy noise happening inside. There's clearly no oil leak but I do seem to detect a slight aroma of burned oil but that might be wishful thinking.

Steering damper should loose its ability to damp when servicing time gets closer.
Your problem looks like, at least to me, a mechanical fault and I would take it off before something bad happens !

[ozzraptor]

My damper has never offered any significant resistance until very recently, and the last three runs I've been on did seem to indicate the problem is only there until everything warms up. It doesn't slide freely but with a slightly scratchy/squelchy noise happening inside. There's clearly no oil leak but I do seem to detect a slight aroma of burned oil but that might be wishful thinking.

Steering damper should loose its ability to damp when servicing time gets closer.
Your problem looks like, at least to me, a mechanical fault and I would take it off before something bad happens !

True, it might turn into a harley and only go in straight lines

[Spyke]

Hah, reminds me of something I saw the other day somewhere "Your t shirt says 'Live to Ride' but your odometer says otherwise"!

Yeah having a pretty cruisy undamped run in the morning, I'll get back to it this week.

[Spyke]

Finally got back to it today, read thru that manual and taking it apart is a doddle. Vice the bracket and unscrew the brass thingo with circlip pliers, then a push down and a sharp tug of the piston pops some oil seal bizo out. I poured out a wee bit of what looks like used fork oil, and inverted it and jiggled the piston to get the dregs out. The manual shows a bottle of "proper" oil getting poured in but I can't see the need to go nuts and spend money so I think I'll use up the dregs of my 7.5 weight fork oil to refill her tomoz and fingers crossed "she'll be right"!

Yeah ozz, it's an unusual setup, maybe Cagiva mounted the damper there to be discreet and still leave the cockpit looking sleek? It's gotta be close to the triple tree you'd think and maybe there just wasn't room "upstairs", there's enough going on with decorative horns and stuff anyway, but TBH I've no idea.