I know there is some ds650 riders (like my self ) who get major air on there quads. the subject of broken shocks has been a issue.Ive destroyed two set's in 6 months. I have found a major problem. please inspect your quad for this problem ! take one shock off and use a straight edege and see if your quads shock mounts are inline! mine are 1 1/2 inch off !! the front a-arm's are forward the 1 1/2 this cause's the shock's to bend !! Im not sure yet if every ds has this problem ..and im not yet sure if aftermarket a-arms are the same way? so please ds riders reply with what you find . thanks ~biggy~

 

hey biggy explain yourself, are you saying that the factory miswelded your mounts 1 1/2 inches? and the stock shocks last longer than works or elka's.

 

I have not found out for sure were the problem is . im looking into this as we speak. a-arm or frame mounts ...all I know is that it dont matter weather you have $100 shocks or 1,800 shocks if the alignment is off they will fail .

 

I'm confused by this also. Were are you placing a strait edge to determine that your mount is wrong? The easiest way to check is to install the top bolt of the shock and see if the bottom of the shock has to be "flexed" into the bottom mount. Take into account that the weight of the shock will pull it slightly backwards. Since the shock is either rubber mounted[stock shocks] or on a hiem[some aftermarket shocks], a slight miss-alignment will not destroy a shock. At worst, it will wear out the mount faster than it should wear.

 

so biggy does this mean your keeping you ds, thought it was forsale, you must be riding it, and like knutz said, the mount would be all that is affected by this.

 

I took a peice of square tubing drilled a hole though it and mounted it to the lower mount . cut it off at about half the normal shock travel distance . the tubing is squre in the lower mount with about 1 to 3 degress of flex @ 12" it contacts the upper mount 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 out of square . and yes this will destroy a shock !!ive talked to three shock builders,today. tim from works say's the mamximum shock angle is 1/4 " and this is mot recomended . they recomend shimming this out . and yes my ds is still for sale . but the truth of the matter is the dealers are selling them so cheep here,and still not selling them ,why would I be able to sell mine for a resonable price. I have a hard time allowing myself to sell a 2001dsfor $5,000 that ive got about $10,000 into and only riden it maybe 35-50 hours .... that adds up to a riding exspence of about 100 dollars a hour . a little hefty if you ask me ..what will probly happen is ill end up keeping it around to ride .and try to get my moneys worth out of it . I keep telling my self "youll get the bugs out of it " but damn there's alot of bug's .the ds was bought for a toy . it has turned into a second job .and by the way when the shock failed I was clearing the 145 foot table top at mazzeppa ..tapped in fourth gear...landed it perfect then saw springs go flyin and poof we were flipen ...took the bars out snapped the right fender off bent the foot peg ,and bent the clutch lever ,ill post some pics of the damages on my site ..2nd who makes bars for the ds? I think ill need to get a set ....lol ..well back out to the garage -

 

dude are your a-arms mounted backwards, left on the right, right on the left, i think so.

 

nope there on right ...looked at that posability already. it apears that all ds (that ive seen so far) are built with the shock sheer in it ..Im going to fix it on mine before I get injured badly from it . most ds ridfers do not jump there quads to the point of bottoming ..so shocks are not breaking alot ...but ive see people who do jump there ds's break shocks very often .even after they buy high dollar aftermarket shocks . I have not yet seen aftermarket a-arms to see if the builders of them have solved the problem ...from what i can tell ill be able to cut off the lower mount's and move them . but the stock shocks will no longer fit due to them having a large spring .it will hit the a-arm ..I hope i dont have to relocate the upper mount that would entale more work .

 

Since you first posted this suposed problem, I've checked out not only my arms and frame, but two customers quads as well.

1] I don't see the issue on any of the 3 I checked.

2] If this is a problem, why can't it be corrected with moving the holes that mount the shocks as apposed to moving the mount. If the bottom mount is too far forward as you say, then move the front,upper hole up a little and the rear , lower hole down a little. This should correct the allignment "problem".

Maybe, if the quads you looked at all came from the same dealer, they screwed them all up. Your the only person to ever report a problem of this nature. Unless you ordered shocks that were built to handle a 500lbs. quad plus a 200lbs+ rider to clear 145' jumps, of coarse there going to break. You can break anything if you drop it from high enough with enough weight on it.

 

well k-nuts for one (as i was told) it dont matter if i drop the quad out of a plane and it lands flat ,the shocks should not brake. bent shafts ONLY come from miss alignment!!! or a siezed shock. raising or lowering the shock in its mount will not have any effect on the side to side alignment . I would have to mount the shock on the outside of the mount to have a decent alingment .