cleopatrisha

Member
Dec 16, 2006
86
0
My 1981 yz250 needs new fork seals so I took the forks off of the bike. and theres a hex bolt on the very bottom of each fork I'm supposed to take out, so I put the fork in a vise and started turning my 10mm hex wrench and yes you guessed it the hex bolt goes around in circles along with whatever there is in the tube holding it . I guess each hex bolt has loc-tite on it(which is normal). Is there a trick to get these hex bolts out my repair manual says if you cannot remove hex bolts to bring it your local yamaha dealer well I am trying to save myself a 100 mile local dealer trip.
 

kx125412

Member
Mar 30, 2006
341
0
Use an air tool if you can get access to one. Either that or you need a damper rod holder or you can make one with pvc pipe. It won't hurt anything by it spinning so dont worry about that.
 

rmc_olderthandirt

~SPONSOR~
Apr 18, 2006
1,533
8
You're lucky if you have a hex head to put a standard socket/wrench on. On my bike it is a 17 mm inverse, needs an "allen" wrench to turn. I had to kludge up a tool to get those loose.

The problem is that the bolt is threaded into a part inside the tube that is essentially free to turn. You can turn it with a wrench all day and never get it to break loose. Hitting it with an impact wrench is the way to go.

If you don't have the impact wrench there are other tricks. It helps to loosen those bolts before you disassemble the top of the forks as the spring tension will put a little more drag on the inside piece and provide a little resistance to turning. Set the forks on the ground, well supported, with the wrench on the nut and extending horizontally. Now hit the wrench with a hammer. The idea is to get a sudden impact into the bolt so that it will come loose rather than turn the inside piece.

If that doesn't work you can take the forks apart then insert some sort of object to push on the inside piece to provide some friction. I know people who say that they used a broomstick for this purpose.

Note that you need to do the same thing when you reassemble, you need to get the bolt reasonably tight and to do that you either need impact drive or to hold the inside piece.

Rod
 

mxdj666

Member
Apr 1, 2007
49
0
put the spring back in and put the cap back on the top of the fork, this usually puts enough pressure on the damper rod to unscrew the bolt at the bottom of the fork
 
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