Anti-Dive units (once more, please)

[red]

1985 FJ1100
I see from the archives, the Anti-Dive units are not effective.  I distrust needless complexity, anyway.  Ebay sells specialized blocking plates to cover the anti-dive holes, which must have some oil-flow passages.  If I knew what size of oil-flow passage is needed, I could have some covers made.  With or without that information, though, I hate to deal with eBay/PayPal (Google for "PayPal horror stories" and bring coffee, 'cause it's a lot to read).

One rider here says the tops of the anti-dive units can be removed, which makes sense from the little I know about them, but I'm concerned that the valving may not be left at the correct opening to allow good suspension there.  One rider says I need to remove the "internals" of the unit, but I do not know what stays and what goes, on that project.

A drawing would be a great help, but any advice on this mod would be welcome here.

Cheers,
Red

[jscgdunn]

We put the block off plates on our 86. They work fine....and look a lot cleaner.

But given the cost, I would reccomend just upgrading to 89 forks.  Would not do it again.

[Tiger]

  Hey Red...I run an '85 that I picked up last year (July'ish).

I replaced all of the brake/clutch lines with Stainless Steel braided lines from a local supplier and I decided to remove the lines from the anti-dive units. I replaced the single banjo bolt, at the anti-dive units with a bolt and crush washer...the double banjo, at the calipers, was replaced with a single unit and fresh crush washers...VOILA...problem solved

John.

[Travis398]

Red, if your front end is all stock I think you would be better suited to put bigger springs on the front and leave the anti dive alone,
until you're ready to upgrade them small discs to 298mm ones (or bigger). 

You can remove the top cap like you said, I have seen others do that.
I never tried it but given they probably don't do much anyhow, I would guess it would be okay to ride it like that.

[racerrad8]

My wife and I both ride our 86's with the upper brake portion of the anti-dive removed. I actually just removed the A/D forks for the late model forks for the WCR, and I was able to take a short ride the other day, but the knee was not comfortable. But so far, the front end feels no different than before.

The A/D was on of the considerations of the fork valve during the design process as well. I wanted to be able use the stock valves without having to make any other modification and that is what happened.

The A/D worked off of brake line pressure which modulated a spool valve internally and was supposed to slow fork travel with ever greater brake pressure. The was accomplished because the pressure on the spool valve applied by the brakes restricted the flow.

When you remove the top of the A/D units it now works the same as if the brake were never applied. If you wanted to make block off plates, the transfer hole should be as big as the holes in the forks to ensure unrestricted oil flow. There is no need to "gut" the valves as they are "open" without any pressure applied.

Randy - RPM

[fj11.5]

Removing the top anti dive hose was the first thing I did to my 84 ambulance, as I was fitting braided brake lines, never noticed a difference without them,probably because from what I've read on the original tests,they never really worked as intended

[FJ_Hooligan]

If you remove the A/D actuator, you will still need to adjust the A/D unit to the MINIMUM position.  That's with the A/D adjuster "screwed in" as far as it will go.  If you want to totally deactivate the A/D for FREE, I think there are instructions for drilling extra holes the damper rods somewhere in the FLIES section.

Hooligan