Fork Glitch

[79XS11F]

Rebuilding the front forks is the only thing I did not do to my 79 restore bike. So today I am doing that as part of spring prep.
Manual says to loosen the bolt at the bottom and remove the inner tube. That bolt is turning but not coming out. Is there something I missed? Can the part that is inside be prevented from turning by way of the drain plug?
Rob

[blue giant]

Rob,

I had the same problem when I rebuilt mine in the fall. There are some good tips on here on how to hold the center section tight while turning out the bolt. I used a whittled down broom stick and my impact gun. Used the same method to put them back together.

Let me know if you want to borrow my broom stick.



Paul

[prometheus578]

"MY ex left her spare broomstick in the closet..."

Put a rag on the floor....
Turn the fork up side down....
Put a little fat into it...(Meaning, throw some weight on it and compress the fork tube)
The extra compression on the spring 'oft stops the innerds from spinning.

[wa407mpp]

air wrench

When I converted my forks to air I took mine down to the shop and used an air wrench to break them loose, a quick blast was all it took. then I finished up with a ratchet.

[bikerphil]

fork damping rod

I use a 3/4 in. (19 mm) bolt with 2 nuts locked togeather with a deepwell socket and a long extention(s). The head of the bolt will fit down the fork tube into the damping rod and keep it from spinning. HTH

[79XS11F]

OK .. I'm sure I'm going to get "b*tch slapped" for this one but time was of the essence.
I could not get that blasted bolt out of the bottom because I would need a 3rd arm to do it soooo .. I cleaned the forks without disassembly.
I drained all the oil out of them after removing the caps and then filled them with de-greaser. I let that sit for a while and then operated the forks several times to pump the de-greaser through the galleries. I repeated that several times and also shook the heck out of them with the caps on. The de-greaser that I poured out of them was very UGLY. I then rinsed them with a lot of contact cleaner which was also pumped through the galleries. I rinsed until the contact cleaner was flowing out clean. I then refiled them with the correct amount and weight of fork oil, dropped in the cleaned springs and that's that.

[prometheus578]

"No slapping needed." (At least not for this)

The walls will have just a light coat of oil, so your method should have taken care of that.
The real gunk is at the bottom. 90% of the time it just takes Brakleen or something similar to break that up and flush it out.
All things considered... I'd say no biggie.

[TopCatGr58]

Uh Prom,

If I'm not missing something, he partially loosened and removed the bolt in the bottom of the fork in an attempt to remove the upper tube assembly. That bolt holds the dampening rod in place, as well as the upper fork tube to the lower slider!

IIRC, the manual strongly mentions the need to reapply fresh threadlock to the bottom bolt to hold it in place and keep it from coming loose so that the slider doesn't fall off the end of the upper tube!

SO...Rob, you might be able to rely on just the torque pressure of that bottom bolt holding onto the dampening rod, but I would feel more secure with threadlock, especially since you DID loosen it!
T.C.

[79XS11F]

Thanks for the warning but I'm good to go TC...I had it in the a wood jawed vice when I started and it appeared to be moving but in fact never even broke the original tightness. It was just turning the inner parts. That was why I decided to not get overly involved with it at this point in time.
Rob

[snowdog51]

bolt

the bottom bolt won't turn alot of the time
turn the tool you have in the fork leg. more than once some one has come to me needing something welded to the bottom bolt to be able to hold it again .
as ever bill

[Meatloaf]

Mine are still around if you want them.

[79XS11F]

Re: bolt

Originally posted by snowdog51
the bottom bolt won't turn alot of the time
turn the tool you have in the fork leg. more than once some one has come to me needing something welded to the bottom bolt to be able to hold it again .
as ever bill

Hey bill... I didn't strip the bolt or break anything that I am aware of. It just didn't loosen at all. It Just turned so I opted to do the non disassembled cleaning job. The next time I find myself needing to tear down some forks I think I will follow bikerphil's suggestion.
Rob

[79XS11F]

Originally posted by Meatloaf
Mine are still around if you want them.

Hey Aaron .. I actually have 2 other good sets here already but thanks for the offer.
Rob

[79XS11F]

I use a 3/4 in. (19 mm) bolt with 2 nuts locked togeather with a deepwell socket and a long extention(s). The head of the bolt will fit down the fork tube into the damping rod and keep it from spinning. HTH

Does the top of thar STINKING dampening rod have a 19 mm recess in the top of it or does the 19mm bolt just get jamed in place inside the rod?
Rob

[tarzan]

There is a 12 point 19mm recess.I mean a nut would sit in it.I have a piece of all thread with a nut welded on each end.I stick it down the tube into it and use an impact on the capscrew on the other end.I did find out though that if I break that bolt loose before removing the fork from the bike,it usually comes right off with just an impact.Then remove and disassemble the leg.