Wilbers ESA Conversion Demo

People often ask how this is done, Ted Porter demonstrate the process in this 10 minute video:

Today, we're going to take this leaking R1200 GS Adventure shock and replace the leaking components with the parts that come out of this box, which are the Wilbers shock and the correct spring setup for this customer's weight.

The first thing we do is remove the heat shield by unscrewing these bolts that secure the heat shield. I've already got them loosened to hopefully move this along a little quicker. The heat shield is removed. The next item that comes off is the rebound damping adjuster, a stepper motor in the bottom of the shock that adjusts the rebound damping. On your display, you see comfort, normal, and sport. Comfort, normal, and sport are the three damping positions controlled by this motor.

Next, we're going to loosen up this set screw that secures the preload motor and keeps it from spinning. Now that we have that out of our way, you can remove the preload motor. We have a special tool that allows us to compress this piece and get it out of our way.

We've compressed the shock, pulled the clip up out of this groove, and now we're going to relax the spring compressor, take a special tool off, little clip off, and we won't need that anymore. Pull the hydraulic preload adjuster. This controls your three preload settings - single helmet, one helmet luggage, two helmets. If you have a GS, you also have a small mountain, which is five millimeters preload front and rear, and a large mountain, which is ten millimeters front and rear. We're just doing the rear shock today.

Now, we need the rebound. To get that off, we've got to do this carefully. The rebound motor, you must pay attention to keep the flame away from the electrical connector. We're also very aware of what temperature it is; we keep an eye on our temperature measurement. We don't want this to exceed about 250 degrees. You have to break the Loctite down to get this rebound motor off of the shock. Pretty darn close.

Now, we bring out the factory special tool and unscrew the shock. That's it. This baby is toast and history. Now, we have the item we need. Let me set this in front of the fan to cool off.

We just came back from cleaning up all components. Here we have the old leaking ESA shock and the new Wilbers shock to replace it. We'll give them to this, and I've taken off the components that are the business end of the ESA shock and cleaned them up a little bit. This is the hydraulic preload adjuster, and this is the rebound damping motor. These are not available separately. If you ever have an ESA failure, and it's the electronics and the damper motor, we can replace that. This is available through Wilbers; it is not available through BMW.

The next step is we are going to assemble the preload motor. Don't try this at home, kids. Okay, then we're going to position this so that it's on the left side, as it's supposed to be, tighten down the little set screw to keep it out of our way for a little bit. There we go.

Now, the most important part in the whole operation - the Wilbers stickers. And one thing I learned, don't install them upside down. Okay, this was sent to us by a BMW dealer. The option was to replace a very expensive shock absorber. These are, I think, in the $2,500 to $3,000 range from BMW.

Alright, so we now have our basic assembly. The last thing to do is put our hood shims on. This has already been set up for this particular rider's weight, so we know exactly what spring to put on it and how much preload to put on that spring. Here, though, it is controlled by these pre-loaded washers since the body is not threaded, and we're not able to do anything about that.

So lastly, we're going to install the rebound damping motor with a little bit of red Loctite. We wouldn't want your shock to fall apart while you ride, and there is a factory torque spec. We do, however, have to have the calibrated wrist and the factory special tool, and this spec is approximately two grunts. Okay, that'll do.

The last thing we're going to do is this is our all-right washer setup going in the right direction, and then stop our spring. We just stuck the spring clip, push that in. Last thing to do, plug in the preload motor, reinstall the splash guard, bolt it in, and voila, that is your completed ESA conversion with a Wilbers shock. We also have tooling, which I didn't demonstrate in this video, to test the operation of these rebound damping motors, which we do before we send the thing back. They have a five-year warranty; they're fully rebuildable. So that's it for this video. Thanks for watching. Contact the BeemerShop for your Wilbers ESA conversions.