Originally Posted by hbarleatherneck

i took the front end apart, lowered and installed chrome lowers in a couple hours. with just the manual for guidance, and it was easy. i did it in about the same amount of time the dealership said it would take them. and i didnt have a lift. they dealership kept saying, "oh its hard, you need special tools" long 6mm from sears or harbor freight. and its cake. these guys are giving you worst case scenario. but, i thought it was easy.

and of course it can go wrong as murphy might help you.

Originally Posted by Rockyriver

You use a 3/8 impact gun to install the bolts, bump the trigger of the impact on the bolt 3 or 4 times, holding down on the trigger 2 seconds each bump (There should be a small copper washer on each bolt, it may even be made onto the new bolts). You can't really get a true torque spec on the bolt because the lower spins with the bolt when you tighten with a hand wrench, therefore you use an impact, and hold the lower by hand very tight, to stop it spinning when tightening. The 6mm allen head bit in the socket is about 3 to 4 inches long, it is a lot longer than a standard allen socket bit. The actual depth of the 6mm bolt in the foot of the lower, can be determined by looking at the new chrome lower and looking into the whole the bolt goes in.

Originally Posted by cwsharp

Well... there may not be any loctite on them... When I did mine I didn't heat them but I >assumed< that there was because it wasn't as 'easy' as others that I have done.

If you go to Sears they have the hex wrenches that are longer than those little dinky ones that you get in the do it yourself furniture, etc. boxes. I would guess that their long side is like 4". You can hook a box end wrench over the short arm of the allen wrench to gain leverage and turn the bolts 'by hand' if you want to do the minimalist route, but I definitely would not recommend that. They also have 3/8" drive long allen socket sets (again, about 4"). These are easy to use on an impact driver that has a 3/8" drive head on it. If you clamp the fork in a vise you can rap on the end of the impact driver with a light sledge hammer. You may be able to 'pop' them loose with a regular hammer, but a little more weight (reasonable amount, mind you) in the hammer head will make things go easier. You can also use the sockets with an impact wrench (electric or air).

This isn't hard to do if you have some mechanical skills. The central issue is making sure that you have the right size allen wrench, that it is snugly placed in the head of the bolt and that you are able to hold it in place when you apply the impact to it. I also doubt that I put loctite on mine when I reinstalled them.

If you buy the socketed set of allen wrenches you can also use them with a torgue wrench if you want to be very specific about it. 20 lbs should do it, but I don't think that it is necessary and there is no spec on it in my shop manual. I think I recall putting the upper part of my tubes back together before installing the screw so that there was spring pressure on the damper. This keeps it from turning while you install the screw. The only other tricky part (and it's not that tricky) is getting the snap ring retainer off at the top of your lower tubes so that you can take the seals, bushings, etc. out. I bought the correct size plastic plumbing fitting at Lowe's to drive the new seal back in. If you aren't confident about experience in putting in these seals, then get a piece of pipe also so that you can slide it over the upper tube and drive evenly on its end to insert the seal. I don't remember what size it was. You can search the forum where someone notes the size I think.

While you are at it, I would recommend replacing all rubber seals, dust boots, etc.... whatever you've got that deteriorates so that you can delay doing this again anytime soon <grin>. Also, I measure the fork oil and put it in. This keeps you from having to measure down inside the tube while the tube is compressed (I think that's the other way you have to do it...). So, you can put the fork oil in (on mine you can, I should say... your top end is different and I haven't looked at one) and button up the tube before you put the damper bolt back in or reinstall the fork tube in the triple tree. You have to know the correct quantity and oil type for your bike.

Craig

Originally Posted by McRider

I did mine a couple of month ago. It is easy if you follow some simple steps.
1. You should remove the fork tubes from the bike. It is not easy to deal with the 6 mm bolts while on the bike as you have to hold the lowers still.

2. Once removed , empty the oil by tilting the tube upside down. no need to remove the drain plug. Not all the oil will come out but you empty the rest when the 6 mm bolt is removed.

3. put the assembly on a flat suface where you can holf the lower tight. You can also use a wooden vice. Use a long 6 mm socket to remove the 6 mm bolt at the bottom of the lower. I did not have an impact wrench. Jut make sure the socket is all the way in and be patient. It appears that mine had some kind of teflon tape from the factory. There were no copper washers. The copper washers are for the drain plugs.

4. Once the 6 mm bolt is removed, you can empty the rest of the oil by holding the the tube and the lower and use a pumping motion.

5. Remove the seal retaining clip and use a pumping motion to remove the tube and cartrige assembly from the lowers. You do not need to take apart the spring assembly.

6. You can now install the new lowers. Make sure you install new seals. There is a direction for the seals and the spacer underneath (letters on seal facing up and the spacer rounded side facing up as well. Seat the seals with a piece of PCV pipe if you don't have the special tool.

The whole thing should take about 2 hours. I hope you have a lift.

Originally Posted by Bugsplat

I am assuming that the PVC is a coupler piece rather than a section of pipe since it needs to be straight and that is tricky with a PVC cutter - some guy recommended dremel'ing the inner flange of the coupler so I'll give that a shot.