What the... Help with rear shock!! Please!

[CRacer]

Well I measured my sag today from the rear fender mounting bolt to the middle of the axle. It is 4 inches shorter than the manual says. The manual says that the distance between these two points should be 28in and mine is about 24 in. Obviously I was way off so I decided to loosed preload on the shock. So I loosen up the first spanner nut, swing it up to the top, loosed the bottom spanner nut and took a good long punch and twisted the spring and bottom spanner nut counter clock wise. This made the distance between the axle and fender about 3/8" closer. So, obviously, I need to go alot more, so I do. So I'm still tapping the bottom spanner nut and some how the bottom spanner nut and the shock spring get separated. Now I can twist my shock spring all around and wiggle it. What the????!?? So I snug the bottom spanner nut onto the spring, take the top spanner nut and begin to tighten it onto the bottom spanner. Well this tightens everything up pretty good but I can still twist and wiggle the shock spring. Any help?
My guess is I loosened the spring so much that it wasn't being compressed onto the bottom of the shock. I had loosened the spanner nut so much that it was like I was going to remove the spring. If any of this makes any sense :

[psyklone393]

your shock spring should be able to move, unless the ttr bikes are different (and i don't think that they are). did it not move at all before?

-Z

[CRacer]

Oh so the shock spring should be able to move. Naw, I'm not sure about the TTR but I'm doin this for my '98 CR125 I'm having a really hard time figuring out sag. My CR's manual says it should be 28.3 in. unloaded with the bike on the stand, between the rear fender mounting bolt and the middle of the axle, ok. Well mine is only about 24.5 in between. I don't know how the figure there should be 28 in. in between?? The manual recommends about 4.1 in. of sag. I just can't get it its to confusing. I'm just gonna tighten the spring down good and leave it at that.

[Woody_393]

If it were me, I'd ignore that 28" number and set you sag based off the numbers you get from free and loaded sag. The set your race sag to 95mm. My CRF likes 95mm the best. 100mm is a little slow in the turning, 90mm is to fast.

[Yardpro393]

woody and psyclone nailed it

[Garasaki]

Yeah, no offense, but i think you might be misreading your manual because i've never heard of sag being refered to as measurements like that....

But I could be wrong!

[CRacer]

Sorry about all that. I got really confused in adjusting the sag. The TTR was different than my Cr. So I got it adjusted and I set it to around 3.8 inches of sag. I guess I should do it by millimeters so I could be more precise but I was trying to get my sag in the ball park. I rode the bike afterward and man! It doesn't wander past the berms anymore, I can't believe I ignored this. Yeah, I think the manual was just using that as an example and just made it up or something?!? Also, my static sag was about an inch and half. Does this mean I need a stiffer or softer spring?

[Woody_393]

I believe the general rule is that if your sag is at 100mm, and your free sag is between 15mm and 35mm you are fine (25mm ~ 1 inch).