Please advise any experience on adjusting the rear ride height on a S4RS. I noticed that if I remove the rear brake master cylinder and heel guard there is a plug in the swing arm. I removed the plug and looking through the hole it appears that I can access the bolt at the bottom of the shock and rear height adjustment arm. Is this the place to start.

Thanks

Hey Gunner. 

You're probably not getting any responses because this is the How-To section.  It's for completed article on How-To perform certain maintenace or modifications, not for questions.

If you move this thread to the Tech forum, you'll get some responses.  If you look down at the bottom of the thread, there's a button that allows you to move the thread with the need to ask a moderator for help.  Good luck. 

 

Ride height is adjusted by lengthening or shortening the err 'ride height adjuster rod'.
The bolt you have discovered should not be touched

Its in the owners manual, just download it from the Ducati site if unsure.

http://www.ducati.com/en/bikes/service/manuals/2006/pdf/MS4RS_eng_ita_fra_ger_06.zip

I raised the rear of the bike by about 1 cm and it was a big improvement.

Gunner, real quick...you don't have to touch that bolt unless you plan on removing the rod. All you need to really do is loosen the bottom screw on the lower end of the height rod. Once you do this you can move the rod from one end only. Once you start seeing some threads, you will then need to tighten the top bolt. Buy some small wrenches if you don't have them. It's tight in there as you well know.

If you have any questions feel free and PM me.

Good luck.

Quote from: ICON on September 05, 2008, 09:19:22 AM
Gunner, real quick...you don't have to touch that bolt unless you plan on removing the rod. All you need to really do is loosen the bottom screw on the lower end of the height rod. Once you do this you can move the rod from one end only. Once you start seeing some threads, you will then need to tighten the top bolt. Buy some small wrenches if you don't have them. It's tight in there as you well know.

Icon,  not to call you out but dont you need to loosen both top and bottom locknuts, else you cant turn the rod barrel?

I almost had to enroll myself in anger management classes when I adjusted my ride height. It was such a pain in the ass.

Reporting final outcome

As a new member and with my first post I was somewhat disappointed with the response particularly the infantile response that the ride height is adjusted by adjusting the  "ride height adjustment rod"
I know what needed to be done Specifically one is to loosen the lock nuts on one or both ends of the adjustment rod then rotate the rod to increase its' length to acheive the desired height adjustment and retigthen the lock nuts.

the problem for those who have not attemtped this is that the access to the lock nuts is very limited. I could get 19 mm box end wrench on the lock nut but could barely turn it 10 degrees.
Ultimately I took it to a local shop "European Cycle Services" in Middletown NY.
They had
Better equipment _ Bike life
Better knowledge - Certified Ducati mechanic and
probalbly a more complete tool box.

They proceeded as I had suspected. First they jacked the bike up to unload the shock. They did not remove the rear wheel.They removerd the bolts on the top and bottom of the Adjustment Rod (& shock) and took it out (the adjustment rod). The rod was set to minimum length ( I suspect this is the normal factory setting) The lock nuts were so tight that we had to put it in a vise to lossen them. The ends were lengthened evenly and temorarily re-installed to check the ride height and final adjustment was made to acheive the desired ride height increase I wanted, in this case 1/2 inch. then the lock nuts were tightened and everything buttoned up.
It was the best one hour of shop labor I ever spent. If you live in Northern NJ or Middletown NY area you should check out the shop "European Cycle Services"

ICON is 100% correct. You do not have to remove the rod. Space around the rod is limited when the bike is at stock height. Once it is jacked up, there is a little more room for further "fine tuning".

Quote from: Gunner on September 06, 2008, 09:55:52 AM


As a new member and with my first post I was somewhat disappointed with the response particularly the infantile response that the ride height is adjusted by adjusting the  "ride height adjustment rod"
I know what needed to be done Specifically one is to loosen the lock nuts on one or both ends of the adjustment rod then rotate the rod to increase its' length to acheive the desired height adjustment and retigthen the lock nuts.

Gunner,    we have a lot of people with very limited mechanical ability who ask questions all the time.   Since you weren't specific as to your skill, or that you were trying to remove the rod, it was actually a pretty reasonable for someone to chime in and say it's the rod and you don't have to remove the bolt you were heading towards.

Many people don't read all the forum every day either, so those who have done the adjustment themselves both by removing the rod and by just getting their knuckles really bloody haven't chimed in yet.   People have posted complete step by step instructions for both methods in the past.  You are disappointed that someone didn't lay it all out within three days?    Not exactly a warm and friendly introduction.

I've had people from this forum offer to come over and help do things on my bike with their own tools when I ask a simple question.   It's not just an online monster encyclopedia with a quick response time.   Stick around and actually say hello...you might find someone in your area who will tweek the ride height for a beer.

And enjoy the raised rear...finishes corners a lot better know doesn't it?

Yeah....what he just said.   Wow, that is much less "infantile" than I could ever be.

Ride safe

I had to remove my adj. rod to increase my height too. Not too bad once you've done it.  I found 1" to be good and also 3/8" down in the front. Can't do too much on the front because of clearance at full compression on the forks.

Generally, people here are very, very helpful. If you search you can frequently find a topic has been extensively covered before too.

LA

I did mine with standard craftsman 19mm wrenches and patience.  Taking off the left side panel gives you some working space for the top.  I just had to alternate adjusting from the top and bottom to get the right angles for the wrenches.