350x Shock Guts Question

[wonderboy]

I've got my 350x shock torn down, as well as a spare I got a while ago in a box of parts. The piston and shaft are slightly different. One piston has additional holes, and one of the shafts has an orifice near the piston. Any idea is this is possibly an 85 versus 86 difference, or is one from a different machine?

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What I "think" i know is the following:


* The shaft with the yellow electrical tape is from my 85 350x, and I'm pretty sure it is an original 85 shock but of course there is no way to know what was changed on it over the years.
* The shaft with the hole was the spare, but it didn't have a reservoir attached so I couldn't look for the tell-tale gold adjuster knob to know it was an 86

All else being equal, any reason to pick one shock shaft over the other?

[Dirtcrasher]

Honda made ALLOT of changes in 1986. Like under a hundred but still a chitload.

You rebuild that shock with a "gold valve" , and new oil and nitrogen, and it will work awesome!!

[Shawn Powell]

You would be correct. The shock with the hole in it is from 1986. Your yellow tape shock would appear to be 1985. I ran into this same thing when I did mine. Don't know if it matters but I used the 86 shock (only cause my 85 was rough and someone vice gripped the shaft) with a race techs gold balance kit and 7w Honda shock oil. Works great considering the 350x has no linkage lol


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[wonderboy]

Thanks for the info guys! You guys are pretty much convincing me to go down the Race Tech gold valve route. I'd been eyeing those for a while, and I do already have the front fork gold cartridge emulators, so I might as well go all the way around.

This was my first time opening up a shock like this and I have to say, it really wasn't bad at all. A little compressed air does wonders popping things apart here and there. I've bead blasted the shock bodies, and am contemplating what to do to keep them nice (if anything)... thinking about satin clear powder coat, but not sure.

I'll post up some pics once I make some more progress.

[Shawn Powell]

Race tech from me is highly recommended. Makes your shock move MUCH smoother. Make sure you use a light weight oil though. My first run through I used 10w and it made a difference. Went back to 7. I'm 200 lbs for comparison. Also I color sanded and polished mine. A year later with minimal effort (washing and drying up after rides) still shiny. Some sand paper water and mothers. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170411/f16636e70d69f4f86ea6cf97f397bb42.jpg


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