warning about working on forks
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Cruiser
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 179
Likes: 10
From: Mansfield, Ohio
warning about working on forks
I'm gonna admit my ignorance to hopefully help someone else out.
Last week I put new pipes on my bike and changed the fork seals.
The forks were a pain in the ***. I wanted the tubes chromed but price was out of my league at this point so I polished the heck out of them. I spent several nights on the polishing. I get them close to where I want them. I drive 45 minutes away to get new seals because all of the local shops are closed.
When I go to put the bike back together, I find that they sold me the wrong seals.
When I finally get the right seals, I have a hell of time finding something to drive the seals back into place. I break down and go to home depot and get a piece of pvc pipe.
So by now I'm sick of working on the bike and not even reading the service manual anymore.
When I took the fork tube nut off, it literally shot off into a piece of plywood above me and back down. thank god my head wasn't over it. The nut is about 1 inch thick of solid metal and probably weighs close to a pound.
The service manual says to relieve the pressure before removing the fork nut. I can attest to this now. Jacking up the front end greatly relieved the pressure and made the second one manageable.
Like I said, it was my ignorance but when I think of many times I've done things without service manuals, I think it's important to share this.
Last week I put new pipes on my bike and changed the fork seals.
The forks were a pain in the ***. I wanted the tubes chromed but price was out of my league at this point so I polished the heck out of them. I spent several nights on the polishing. I get them close to where I want them. I drive 45 minutes away to get new seals because all of the local shops are closed.
When I go to put the bike back together, I find that they sold me the wrong seals.
When I finally get the right seals, I have a hell of time finding something to drive the seals back into place. I break down and go to home depot and get a piece of pvc pipe.
So by now I'm sick of working on the bike and not even reading the service manual anymore.
When I took the fork tube nut off, it literally shot off into a piece of plywood above me and back down. thank god my head wasn't over it. The nut is about 1 inch thick of solid metal and probably weighs close to a pound.
The service manual says to relieve the pressure before removing the fork nut. I can attest to this now. Jacking up the front end greatly relieved the pressure and made the second one manageable.
Like I said, it was my ignorance but when I think of many times I've done things without service manuals, I think it's important to share this.
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Tourer
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 444
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From: TEXAS!
I was going to do the fork work myself soon, now I shall reconsider.
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