Help - ?? for anyone who has changed fork springs

[robl]

Here's a question for anyone who has attempted changing fork springs:

I just finished removing the springs, and was draining the oil out of the top of the fork tube by pulling the rod in and out like this:

Question: The rod in one fork leg seems to move in and out with bit less resistance than in the other fork leg. Does anyone know what this could imply? If there's a problem, I'd like so solve it now before I put things back together with the new springs and fresh oil.

Also, is it easier to remove the valve body at the bottom now that the caps and springs are removed? What would I have to hold on to so that I could simply turn the bolt out on the bottom? I'd like to really clean them out completely.

 

[Rhodester]

I'm not sure on the rod issue.

It doesn't matter if you have the forks completely together or not to remove the valve body (with shim stacks) from the bottom of the fork. You'll find that crud collects on the shims/valve assembly at the bottom so removing it to clean things up is a good idea. You'll need a POWER impact wrench/driver with a 14mm Allen fitting to make this happen. With this setup you'll be able to just hold the fork leg upside down in your hand and it'll work beautifully. Without it......good luck. I bought a cheap Chinese power impact driver at Harbor Freight for a decent price. The Allen fitting was a little harder to find. You'll need to call around to a few industrial tool suppliers to find one, but don't worry, you'll be able to find it.

 

[robl]

I have an impact gun, but haven't had any luck finding the allen socket locally in Spokane. I thought I'd make one with a reverse thread bolt and a couple of nuts. I'm assuming tightening it up will also require the impact gun? I'll probably have to adjust it so as not to over tighten it back in.

I am concerned about the fork rods though. I'm hoping it has something to do with possible remaining fluid in there somewhere, and not bad parts. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Red_Chili]

Some oil remains in the tube. Probably a significant amount of splooge (technical term) too, which can only be removed by disassembly. It is rather difficult to remove the valve body without the fork spring pushing from the inside. You do not need to fully reassemble the fork though; put the spring in, invert it, and depress the assembly to apply pressure to the internal ass'y.

You can take a hardened metric bolt with a 14mm head and double-nut/loctite, or spot weld, some nuts on it, to make a tool. Needn't be LH thread, you just need to make sure the nuts will not loosen, the bolt will not break, and the head will not round out the valve body. Ace Hardware had a 14mm x 5/8" allen slug which worked really well for me.

 

[NSPHIL]

Do not tighten with the impact gun! In removing the compression assembly you can make a tool as described in a post below and use a 14mm allen key or socket or as described above with the impact gun. Be careful, do not over tighten when you re-assemble.
On the rod issue, I had a rod at one time that was hard to move and stuck at times. Turned out there was some surface rust on the rod wich casued it to stick. I used some 1000 grit sandpaper and scotch brite to resurface the rod. Worked great.

 

[Red_Chili]

I used my impact gun set on stun, but yeah, careful with that axe, Eugene.

 

[NSPHIL]

:cool: Floyd Rocks!!!