I had to do it...even though it's got a bad seal I still needed to pop it in to see just how much it would change the SH's rear end. I'll tell you what: every single nut holding every single bolt in place was a nightmare to break loose. I rounded one so badly I thought I was stopped in my tracks, but a trip to Sears for a 'rounded nut/bolt head removal kit' and the day was saved. I was using a 6-piont socket and still mutilated the nut holding the liknage to the engine (the one with the allen bolt that hits the shift linkage on the way out). The whole installation was a bit more involved than I expected, but still not very difficult by any means. And since I know I'll be removing it sometime soon to have it rebuilt, I put the shock's lower mounting bolt in the opposite way so it pops out into thin air rather than sliding out and stopping dead against the damn exhaust header on the way out next time. Why was it assembled like that from the factory? Anyway, I can't believe the difference a good shock makes. It's not even set-up specifically for me and it is a huge improvement over the stock unit. I just wound up the preload a little and put both compression and rebound at the mid-points and threw it on. As I received it, it was a few mm longer than the stock one removed so I didn't mess with the ride height at all. It soaks up the small bumps better than the stock shock could dream of doing and it still has a stiff feel to it at the same time...how does that even work? The 1st pic shows a generous portion of fluid on the piston. The 3rd pic is of the stubborn nut with battle wounds. Not sure what else to add besides that I wish I would've taken pics of every step of the installation...maybe next time.

 

Mine were stuck on there pretty good too, not as bad as yours. This is a good time to clean it all up and use grease and locktite when reassembling. Locktite acts as an antirust agent as well as a thread locker. If you are ambitious, pull the swingarm and clean up those bearings too. After experimenting a bit, I settled on a 1mm spacer on the top. I started with 3mm and it was way too much for me. I am a street rider, the 1mm was a nice touch.

As for the shock, I described my Ohlins this way, it feels as if it is sucking the rear tire to the road. It is almost creepy. JB