Here are some pictures I took when I serviced the preload adjuster on a spare shock I have. I bought this off the forum with 9,000 miles on it. 10,000 miles later it took 12 clicks for the adjuster to start working. In the first pic the preload is completely screwed in or to the Hard setting and I measured 6.5 mm of preload on the spring which is all she had at that time. Pic 2 the adjuster is screwed all the way out and the spring is the full length as allowed by the shock body. In Pic 3 I have removed the adjuster knob. The ball and spring that make up the clicker are lying between the adjuster body and the knob. I am pointing at the hole the spring and ball are in when assembled. If the ball flies out when removing the knob and is lost you can go to Ace Hardware and get a 4mm or 5/32 ball bearing to replace the lost one. That is what I did. Pic 4 shows the hole in the end of the body and the original fluid that came out. It wasn't bad looking, just not enough of it. In Pic 5 you can see the large adjustable wrench and the 10mm wrench used to remove the banjo (the hose) fitting. Also there I have some Bel Ray 5 wt fork oil and a syringe I used to fill the adjuster body. I saw 5 wt fork oil used in a Gold Wing DIY article on refilling a Showa preload adjuster and well, I had some on the shelf so that is what I used. In Pic 6 I have reassembled the hose and the knob back on and am pointing to where the ball fits just under the edge of the knob. Pic 7 shows now there is 9.7 mm of preload on the spring - a gain of 3.2 mm. The adjuster takes up at the first click now. Pic 8 shows the preload adjuster of the shock that is on my bike now. Because the clicker eventually gets crud in it and doesn't click much I painted a white dot and 2 white lines 180 degrees apart that correspond to "clicks" so I can keep track of preload and replicate the settings I want. I always release all preload on the shock now when the bike is in the garage. I hope this slows the loss of adjustment that seems to dog the Showa adjuster Honda uses on the ST1300. It seems to work so far.
