Damper Adjuster Bolt Spinning - 45mm Showa

[DW]

Hi,

I have a 91 CR500 with 45mm Showa forks. I installed gold valves several years ago and am now riding more agressively. I went to revalve, only to discover I can no longer remove the damper adjuster bolt from the bottom of either fork. Both bolts loosened from their initial tightness (I used a 19mm socket) but neither will back out. Now the damper bolts simpy spin in either direction. They will neither tighten nor back out. Holding the damper assembly with an improvised tool does not help - the damper bolt does not appear to be linked directly to the damper assembly on the 91 Showa. Any advice?

DW

 

[KiwiBird]

Put the springs back in, caps on, and compress the forks as much as possible so the cartridge doesn't spin and then try to remove them - air impact in short bursts if you have one.

I've put the axle clamp in a vise and used a tiedown to compress the forks by attaching the tie down to the axle clamp, over the fork cap and back to the axle clamp. I cut a piece of plywood in an "H" shape with a hole in the center of the "H" for the adjuster and used the open parts of the "H" to guide the tiedown - sounds complicated but I had the tiedown slip off the forks at the cap end a couple of times.

 

[DW]

Not enough friction...

KiwiBird,

Thanks for the tip. How's the water? I started off down that path and fabricated a cartridge holding tool using the top rail off of a chain link fence. I can hold the cartridge yet still spin the damper bolt in either direction. Bottom line, the tool doesn't help for this fork.

I think the damper bolt is threaded into the bottom of the compression valve which sits inside the cartridge via a friction fit (the o-ring on the gold valve). The compression valve is kept in place by a threaded retaining ring on the bottom of the cartridge. I am actually contemplating drilling out the damper bolt to remove the cartridge. Anyone been down this lonely path before?

 

[DEANSFASTWAY]

Yeah Ive seen some problems like that With stripped allen bolts on KYBs too Make sure you use a good 6 point socket on the basevalve bolt . Ive seen people strip off Showa type so bad that we milled the ends off and got new base valve .Kiwi bird tells you a good procedure(on bike) just get out of the way when the oil comes draining out ,air impact will do the job .

 

[DW]

Twist and Shout...

Propane heat and air impact sorted it out. Suspect the bolt was thread locked. I revalved - stiffened low speed compression and softened the high speed compression - to set the bike up for woods riding. Good to have the beast back.

 

[KiwiBird]

Good to hear. :cool: