Stuck Fork Bolt OR Adventures in Being Stupid

acbanks

Even with the correct tool, ape for brains here stripped these old fork caps like they were, well, soft aluminum. I'm sure they hadn't been off in 10 years or more, though. Loosened them from the tree, took the weight off the wheel, tried to spray some penetrating lube in there.

y solution was a can of computer duster. Turned upside down. It'll freeze the bolt in a few seconds...shrinks it right up. I had to drill a series of holes in the top of the bolt to make a nice slot, then hammered a chisel into said slot. Put a pipe wrench on the chisel with a 2 foot breaker bar and out it came with a loud *CRACK*. The bolt is fine though and I'm reusing it until I can order a new one.

oral of the story: If I had cooled the bolt first, I could have probably got it removed without really hosing things up. A can of PC duster will stay in my toolbox from now on.

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Also:
Should there be 6 inch pieces of plumbing pipe on top of my springs? I didn't think so. Still, it seemed like about the right amount of force, I had to struggle to get the fork caps back in. Any problems with this? The bike rarely bottoms out. Handling is, well, the handling sucks, but is better with some oil in the forks, that's for sure.

xsleo

The upper tree clamp bolts need to be loosened before the fork caps will come out. The tree clamps right around the threads for the cap.

Joseph · Full Member Joined: May 22, 2007 Posts: 767 Location: NY

Quote::

My solution was a can of computer duster. Turned upside down. It'll freeze the bolt in a few seconds...shrinks it right up.

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The upper tree clamp bolts need to be loosened before the fork caps will come out. The tree clamps right around the threads for the cap.

Nice I learned 2 new things here and I am going to have to take my trees off to check stearing bearing.

xsleo

Joseph, when you do check the bearings it is much easier to remove the forks from the trees, the head light ears and such so when you pull the trees from the frame it is not as heavy. You can also wrap a large rag around the lower tree to catch all the loose ball bearings that will fall out. Letting them bounce around on the floor will lose some of them.

Joseph · Full Member Joined: May 22, 2007 Posts: 767 Location: NY

I actually changed to the tapered bearing, but I think I may have got the races mixed up, nothing wiggles or feels loose, it just seems I cant tighten it enough to cause resistance which I here is how you adjust the tightness. I think I putt the smaller race in the top. I am not sure how I'm going to get them out if I did. Any suggestions there. I defiantly have to break it down allot more than last time, I tried to just take the steam out and like your saying it was way to heavy I wound up scratching stuff pretty bad.

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Yamaha xs650