By golly Krash....I think you've had a stroke of genius.

 

Right when i had to time to work on the bike and see what's wrong this site went down[:'(] but now that it's up here's an update:

So I released the shock from the dogbone and swingarm link. And this is what i think is the problem. Once the swingarm was detached i was able to bring it down enough to where the bike would not sit as low before. But the problem lies within the shock im guessing because it is not long enough to connect to the swingarm link to the height i want it to be at.

pics:





And this is the height at which it should be at but the shock is not long enough for me to connect it to the swingarm link:




This is how it should be sitting, but the shock is just not long enough:




The shock itself looks fine:



Here's a clearer picture of the dogbone:



Yeah the shock rebounds up and down as it's supposed to, it's just that i think it got compressed somehow and the bike sits lower because of the shock itself. I'm not sure what the preload does, weather it lengthens or shortens the compression of the shock? But is there some way i can elongate the stock shock so that it matches up with the holes?

Thanks krash and all the others for the help, one step closer to being back on the road

 

the preload only adjusts the spring length and pressure, although, I guess if you turned the preload all the way up it could possibly apply enough spring pressure to "pull" the shock back out. if thats the problem.

although, I'm still not convinced there is not a problem in your linkage somwhere. either there where it connects to the pivot plates, or on the bottom where it connects to the engine housing.

let me load up some pics for you to compare it

 

my first part that I am really unsure of in the linkage is this part, not sure if this is the actual "dogbone" or if its the other part.(the other part looks like a dog bone to me, but everybody calls these pivot plates the dogbone. whatever, mine look like they have more angle than yours. it could just be the way the picture was taken, but here are a couple pics of mine for reference

up close, tried to get the same angle you have, notice how much of an angle there is compared to yours?



here is a couple more view:



one from the other side:




But what about the bottom where it mounts to the engine?

 

wow i think i know what most of the problem may be. So here is my dogbone detached from the bike:



You can even see the stress and bend marks.

It has to be this. But i'm not sure whether this is the ONLY problem, i don't think replacing it would add much more height but i could be wrong.

 

yeah, you got like 3/4" worth of bend there. that is for sure the problem. that little bit will make a tremendous amount of difference on the geometry of the bike.

If you go back and look at my pics where I had the bottom bolt out, you can see my shock isnt very far off from the mounting points, and compared to yours with the bend, they would be about the same.

now, after all is said and done, that took a tremendous amount of force on the shock compressing to actually bend that, so its possible that you may have blown some seals in your shock.

if it were me, I would buy a whole assembly, used, off ebay. buy a new shock(used) and new plates. your probably looking at about $75 total. but the piece of mind knowing that your shock and linkage is all good will let you sleep at night.

if not, your always going to be doubting the performance of the shock.

 

Yeah i think i'm gonna trash the shock i have now, either get a stock replacement, ohlins or penske. Thanks for all the help krash, couldn't have done it without ya. I'll update some pics with the bike put back together, hopefully SOON. 1.5 months with no bike i'm slowly dying inside.

 

Yep. replacement is in order. Keep us posted. Check for other cracks/ warps as well. Make sure that's the only misalignment.