So decided to take a shock off your lovely yamaha xt660z, and realised that to do that all tail bits, air filter box and and everything else has to come out? Well, funny but you are not the only one! Luckily there is a quick tip on how to make this job so much easier that I wanted to share with you for some time now!

Yes there will be a need to modify stuff, however it takes minutes,mod stays on the bike permanently and next time there is a need to work on a shock – it will take only seconds to remove it – honestly!

So, the problem with shock’s removal is that the top bolt is long, but clearance between the bolt and the air filter box is not. It can be undone, but it can not be extracted as it backs out to the wall of the filter box.

One way to remove it is to take an air filter box but as you probably guessed it will take all afternoon and most likely a few bleeding knuckles.

The easy way is, well, to take the side cover off the air filter box (only a few Philips head screws holding it in place) and drill a massive hole in it – literally!

Ok. If you think that’s crazy – it kind of is, but… hole has to be just big enough to push the bolt out (or socket) and it can be covered with rubber firewall hole plug grommet once shock is back in place!

Hole plug is cheap, saves an enormous amount of time as well as gives a chance to clean up the air filter box once the cover is removed. So it’s a win win win!

One more thing, air filter box screws are very easy to strip, so do go monkeys on them, and the shock top bolt should be tightened to 60nm, bottom bolt only 45nm!