It is a stock wheel. I did this on my RC wheels years ago out of necessity. I bought new stock dampers and they were loose in the wheel. So when I got this new to me stock bike I did it to the stock bike when I was inside checking the final drive service.
I have a new set of dampers in stock but thought I'd go this route. This is much tighter than stock.
Is it possible that there is an engineering reason for the new stock dampers to not be 'tight'? perhaps to reduce transmitting stress into the rest of the drive system...?
When I changed my dampers the first time, I used the "old kind", I just ordered off the
fiche page for my 97 down at HDL. They were tight as could be, it was hard to put
everything back together.
When I changed them the second time, I used the newer kind. They weren't so tight,
it was easy to put them in and to twist that cover back in place.
That feeling of looseness (I call it "lash" because I hear other people call it that, I
don't know if that is the right term) will certainly be lessened when you change out
worn dampers for new ones, but it will never go all the way away, nor should it. If
you hold a nice tight good final drive in your hand and turn the pinion cup back and
forth, you'll feel a little bit of lash... if you hold a crappy beater final drive in your
hand and turn the pinion cup back and forth, you'll feel a lot more lash...
-Mike "data point"
