My project - I WILL be asking many silly newbie questions...

[JeRkY]

If i remember rightly they were custom to fit the LTS. I do remember seeing NOS ones on the bay as well. For a fairly good price.

 

[ashes_mtb]

If i remember rightly they were custom to fit the LTS. I do remember seeing NOS ones on the bay as well. For a fairly good price.

Like this (trunnion mount example)?

The later LTS/STS do need a special shock. I'm fairly certain the earlier LTS's are more standard, with the normal bushing mounts at either end of the shock.

 

[haribo]

Pic of it after I cleaned it up a bit and put some spare parts on it to take it out for a ride. It's been stripped down again now awaiting a few bits. Also a pic of the serial number on the bottom in case someone knows how to identify what LTS it is from that. I now think it might be a 96 LTS 1 as they had the old style linkage and were constructed from 6061 T6 like mine (plus 96 is part of the serial?). Thanks for everyones help.

 

[LTS Biker]

That indicates a 1996 build LTS, but.. still can be a 97 model.

But the shock is not the trunion mount shock. You can measure the eye-eye distance and can mount other shocks, like a fox which was also available for the LTS.
The straight link shocks are trunion mount. So the choice of shox on my bike a quite limited. Risse, RS and some rare other models. I choose to use the original one again (only by accident a bit longer) becasue it was cheap, 15 dollar. But I want to use it with a different (titanium) spring.