Spring for rear shock

I ordered little stiffer spring for the rear shock so I can carry camping gear and what not along with my big #@!

Stock spring rate is 7.7 kg/mm. I ordered a 8.9 kg/mm spring from Race Tech.

Anyone replace a spring before on the WRR?? Any pointers??

I have replaced the spring on my KLR. So I know approximately what I am gettin in to. But if there are details about the WRR shock that would help me, please sound off.

The KLR shock was easy. Compress spring, take things apart. Put it back together.

The night before I sold my 2008 WR-250X, the buyer wanted the stock shock spring put back on my bike (I was using a softer-rate spring).
I did this by removing the spring through the bottom of the bike.

Measure your current rider sag with your weight on the seat so that you can dial-in the correct spring preload once the new spring is installed - I liked 3.5 inches.
Put the bike up on a stand that holds the bike off the ground by supporting the frame cradle under the engine.
Loosen the spring preload collars several turns.
Remove the bolts that connect the linkage to the shock and swingarm and move that out of the way.
Raise rear wheel and hold it up by placing a support under the wheel.
Once the bottom of the shock is clear and free, you loosen the preload collars enough so that you can turn the spring by hand, which makes it easier to back the preload collars off to the point to where you can spin them by hand.
Loosen the preload collars enough to allow removing the spring retainer at the bottom of the shock.
Drop spring out the bottom.
Reverse proceedure to put it back together.


If you haven't done it in at least a year, I'd take the whole rear suspension apart (remove shock, linkage, and swingarm and grease all of the bearings, seals, collars, spacers, and bolts/pivot shafts).
Time well-spent.
Riding through stuff as shown in your avitar image will eventually corrode the parts if you don't do this once in a while.

As a side note, when I had my rear wheel/swingarm held high during this work, I noticed how the drive chain rubs directly on the ol' troublesome WR-250R or WR-250X seal guard (the black thing the chain slides over behind the front sprocket, and the thing that some riders have their drive chains eat all the way through to the swingarm on the bottom side).
Well, under full suspension compression, the chain touches this, and this is with slack in the chain.
If your chain is too tight, I can see where the damage is coming from since the chain will be forced to grind through it under tension, not just sliding over it as intended.

hey bsheet2
let us know how much travel you have with the new shock compared to stock?
i have been thinking about getting something like that.....

He's just changing spring rates. There shouldn't be any affect of overall travel.

Thanks a whole bunch for the proceedure description! I figgured I had to pull the whole shock off and compress the spring to get it off of there. Like I did on my KLR. This looks to be much simpler.

Yes, I should have the same travel on the rear suspention with the new spring.

As far as preload, I have already figgured I need about 1 inch less preload on the adjustment rings to be about the same preload as stock. I figgure this should let me add about 60 lbs or so of camping gear and such by adding 1 inch of preload. The spring rate difference is 1.2 kg/mm. 1 inch = 25.4mm. 1 kg=2.2 lbs. So 25.4mm x 1.2 x 2.2 = 67 lbs . Since I can already get a 3.5 inch sag with the stock spring, I should be able to load up the back with about 60 to 75 lbs and be in good shape.

FYI, I weigh 225 lbs with no gear. I have a big tail rack made from cutting board, I have Wolf Man side racks and I have a big tail bag with tools, rain gear, spare tubes and 2 water bottles on there now. I can get a 3.5 inch sag with the stock spring on. This info might help others know if they need a new spring or not. I need a stiffer spring to be able to carry gear for a trip.

What I will be interested in is seeing if I will still be able to tolerate the rebound damping with the stiffer spring on there. I don't ride much super knarly stuff. So I have not noticed the rear trying to bounce me over the handle bars. I have the rebound set on about mid way setting. So I am hoping I can crank up the rebound to the highest setting and still get a decent ride.

Thansk again!! This forum rocks!

Update: Got to thinking about it. Since there is leverage at play in the linkage for the rear shock, not sure the calcs I did above are accurate. Guess I will find out!

Got the new spring on the rear shock. Not hard at all.

- Unscrewed the pre-load nuts on top of the spring till they were all the way off and loose on top of the spring.
- Unbolted rear suspention linkage and bottom of the shock.
- Lifted spring up and slipped out the bottom washer thing.
- Spring just slides off downward.
- Unbolted top of shock.
- The shock can now just lift out the left side of the bike.

I put the new spring on with the shock off the bike. This spring is a bit shorter than the stock shock so I had to buy spacers from Racetech for top and bottom of spring. I was able to slide the shock back into place through the left side of the bike with the new spring on it. I had to stack boards up to elevate the rear tire and swing arm to give just a bit more room for clearance. It was a tight fit. But some how I jiggled it in there. The stock spring is a bit wider than the new spring, I think. I am not sure the shock will slip out the left side with the stock spring on there.

Travel on the suspention is the same as stock. I tested it a bit by running over a few curbes on the road out front. Felt fine. Next weekend I will crank up the pre-load and see how much luggage weight it will tolerate now.

Stiffer spring works very well. Held me plus camping gear on 450 trip. HAd to increase the rebound dampening . But washboard on gravel roads smoothed out just fine.

I am not an agressive rider. So others results may vary.

bsheet2 wrote:

Got the new spring on the rear shock. Not hard at all.

- Unscrewed the pre-load nuts on top of the spring till they were all the way off and loose on top of the spring.
- Unbolted rear suspention linkage and bottom of the shock.
- Lifted spring up and slipped out the bottom washer thing.
- Spring just slides off downward.
- Unbolted top of shock.
- The shock can now just lift out the left side of the bike.

I put the new spring on with the shock off the bike. This spring is a bit shorter than the stock shock so I had to buy spacers from Racetech for top and bottom of spring. I was able to slide the shock back into place through the left side of the bike with the new spring on it. I had to stack boards up to elevate the rear tire and swing arm to give just a bit more room for clearance. It was a tight fit. But some how I jiggled it in there. The stock spring is a bit wider than the new spring, I think. I am not sure the shock will slip out the left side with the stock spring on there.

Travel on the suspention is the same as stock. I tested it a bit by running over a few curbes on the road out front. Felt fine. Next weekend I will crank up the pre-load and see how much luggage weight it will tolerate now.

Followed these instructions exactly and just changed out my spring for a Race Tech. Thank you for posting this. I'm no mechanic and it was just right for my skill level and experience. Beats $65 an hour for shop labor.

bsheet2 wrote:

Got the new spring on the rear shock. Not hard at all.

- Unscrewed the pre-load nuts on top of the spring till they were all the way off and loose on top of the spring.
- Unbolted rear suspention linkage and bottom of the shock.
- Lifted spring up and slipped out the bottom washer thing.
- Spring just slides off downward.
- Unbolted top of shock.
- The shock can now just lift out the left side of the bike.

I put the new spring on with the shock off the bike. This spring is a bit shorter than the stock shock so I had to buy spacers from Racetech for top and bottom of spring. I was able to slide the shock back into place through the left side of the bike with the new spring on it. I had to stack boards up to elevate the rear tire and swing arm to give just a bit more room for clearance. It was a tight fit. But some how I jiggled it in there. The stock spring is a bit wider than the new spring, I think. I am not sure the shock will slip out the left side with the stock spring on there.

Travel on the suspention is the same as stock. I tested it a bit by running over a few curbes on the road out front. Felt fine. Next weekend I will crank up the pre-load and see how much luggage weight it will tolerate now.

Could you show me in picture how this collar looks and how it's mounted?
Got the spring but without the collar, now i need to make one myself :)