98 venture shock upgrade

[JLVENTURE700]

hi i have a 98 venture 700.Doesnt seem to be possible to find aftermarket shocks to upgrade the suspension.Has anyone put in different shocks out of something else.I'm a mechanic with welding skills so modifications to mounts aren't an issue but not sure what would be fairly close to fitting/better than stock.

 

[Maim]

dude that skid is a proaction stretched out. i know that olins from an sx, sxr, sx viper, vmax, xt and rx1 sleds all fit in there and bolt right up. if you are lucky, it will have an aluminum bodied shock in there that is rebuildable by a guy like shock tec through our local dealer. if they are steel bodied, kimpex makes a replacement rear shock that can be bought for $150 (if i remeber correctly) at royal distributing. just getting fresh shocks in it will improve the ride. olins did make shocks for that suspension as i have a full set on my dad's 2005 sx venture.

 

[carey]

I bought a set of viper shocks and had a local shop that rebuild/revalve them. I had the rear shock revalved with heavier damping to match my Venture needs. I installed needle bearings in the shock mounts of the center shock, eliminating the plastic bushings. Now both shocks on the rear skid have bearings at the mounts.

My challenge was the Viper rear spring had a spring rate that was too light and the ID of the Venture rear spring was too large to sit on the Vipers threaded spring adjuster. So I made a spring keeper that allowed installing the heavier Venture spring on the Viper rear shock. I used a steel washer 2 3/4" in diameter and 3/16" thick. The washer ID was too small, so I scribed a circular line on the washer that matched the Vipers adjuster. Basically, I enlarged the ID about 1/4 per side with a hack saw and die grinder. The new spring keeper sits between the Vipers adjuster and the Venture spring.

All in, my cost was about $150