Forking around with Lucille

MaxPete

Lucille, Betty, Demi, Gretel & Big Sue money pits.
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Good morning all!

Well, after much procrastination I declared a mental health day yesterday and went and bought the parts needed to fix the forks on my red 1976 XS650C - Lucille. She came to me with fairly badly pitted fork tubes and a bit of oil visible on them, so I knew that this was coming. Finally, the other day I was looking at her and noted a coating of dust all over the front end and when I wiped some off with my finger, it came off all black and gooey. She had puked out just about all of her fork oil and it was now coating the forks, the lowers and the headlight bucket - YUK!! :speechless: Anyhow, I am now the proud owner of
  • a new set of 34 mm fork tubes;
  • TWO sets of new seals (2 sets just in case I "enjoy" the job so much that I want to do it twice);
  • the requisite fork tools (thanks Coconut Pete!!! :bow:) and,
  • a new set of progressive wound springs.
Soooo....today will be "fork rebuild" day in the Disaster Central Workshop (after a bit of workbench cleaning needless to say....)

I do have a question based on searching the forum and even going full-Google/YouTube in search of a good 34mm fork How-To video (there doesn't seem to be one for the 34mm dia. fork XS650 but I get the general idea from the many videos I did find):

Q - a key problem seems to be preventing the damper rod from turning during removal.
When one loosens the lower bolt that secures the damper rod, it seems that the darned thing often just tends to turn and turn and so a top-end holding tool is needed to stop the rotation.

There are several pictures of such tools in the forum (mostly made out of a socket with a slot cut across it) - but there are no dimensions that I can find and since I don't have an actual 34mm damper rod loose - yet - could someone please send along a sketch or photo of the tool with the required width of the slot that I need to cut?

Any other tips or suggestions would be most welcome!

Cheers,

Pete
 
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Here's the standard shop procedure. If spring has been removed, put it back in and secure the cap. Put a hex bit in a power impact driver (AKA buzz gun). With the cap on the floor, have a helper hold the slider and push down hard while you apply the buzz gun, also pushing down. Hit the trigger in short bursts, don't just hold it down.
 
Okey dokey - thanks Grizld1!

I'll give that a whirl and see how it goes.

Pete
 
NOTE: shameless hijack - but it's MY thread so...NYAH!!!

Don't forget about the up-coming SE-MI / SW-ON meet-up.

There is a thread in the Regional Forum (Great Lakes & Canada) but here are the details:
  • DATE: Sat. July 15 - 2017
  • TIME: 11:00 AM (that will ensure that we get a table and give us time to oggle each other's bikes)
  • LOC: Vinsetta Garage Restaurant
27799 Woodward Ave.
Berkley, MI 48072
(248) 548-7711


NOTE: XS650s preferred, but ALL BIKES WELCOME!!! Ride whatcha got and come for a chat!

Hope you can come!

Pete
 
Yes, detailed info on the earlier 34mm forks is lacking. Maybe you can remedy that? Report the details on the size of the special tool needed once you have the forks apart and you've built one?

I'd also be interested in knowing the size and amount of oil holes in the damper rod. The Minton Mods were originally done on the later 35mm forks but if the number and size of the oil holes on the 34mm forks is similar, I don't see why the mods wouldn't benefit them too. The 35mm forks have one small hole at the top of the damper rod and 4 larger ones near the bottom. Here are their sizes and what I "Minton Mod" them to .....

MintonModDrills.jpg


The small top hole is slightly enlarged and then drilled through out the other side of the rod to create a second hole. The bottom 4 holes are just enlarged. No extra or new ones are added.
 
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Oh Boy , Im sure you guys are going to love this "tool" .. Now as a young motorcycle luvin kid , I had to improvise often in these situations. Still do. Found that my dads old yard shed had a sufficient size broom handle (wood) . I filed it to a taper close in size to jam in the damper rod end. Pounded that f'er in there tight ! Flipped over the fork, put the exposed broom stick end on the floor and busted the allen bolt loose with an impact driver. Works ! Time saver maybe Pete ! Enjoy your shop day ! -RT
 
Hi Guys:

5T - I do plan to do a write-up with pictures (and circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explainin' what each one is...) - and i will make those measurements as well.

TM - what tool? Have you got a photo?

Pete
 
Lol, Im saying if you don't have that "special tool" a broom handle smacked in there will keep the damper rod from spinning while you impact the bolt from the other direction.. "git er done it" several times . Good Luck ! off to wurk . .
20170621_121932.jpg
 
What TM is talking about will only work on the 35mm forks and damper rods. The rods have holes in the top for the broom handle to jam into .....

fqDSdgz.jpg


Your 34mm damper rod isn't like that. It's solid on top (no hole) and has a post sticking up with flats machined on two sides. You need the slotted socket or something like that. I think the recommendation in the old Clymer's or Haynes was to squeeze the end of a piece of pipe half closed so it would just fit over and grip the flats.
 
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I just did two sets of forks without any special tool. Just used an air impact driver and the allen. When doing this just have the allen tool and impact driver ready to boogy without any pause and it will work, springs and caps installed and mounted to triples. I used a cut off allen wrench, because it has to be a looong one, and the appropriate socket to fit the cut off allen wrench to the impact driver. I've also done this without the springs installed, better chance with them in.

Insert allen tool into bolt, pull the trigger and boogy on that bolt until it is all the way out. You just can't have more fun than this.

Scott

Yeah, put a couple layers of cardboard under the forks.
 
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w
I just did two sets of forks without any special tool. Just used an air impact driver and the allen. When doing this just have the allen tool and impact driver ready to boogy without any pause and it will work, springs and caps installed and mounted to triples. I used a cut off allen wrench, because it has to be a looong one, and the appropriate socket to fit the cut off allen wrench to the impact driver. I've also done this without the springs installed, better chance with them in.

Insert allen tool into bolt, pull the trigger and boogy on that bolt until it is all the way out. You just can't have more fun than this.

Scott

Yeah, put a couple layers of cardboard under the forks.
Whether this works varies by year, some years (later I think) use lots of Blue loctite without the tool they just spin.
 
I just did two sets of forks without any special tool. Just used an air impact driver and the allen. When doing this just have the allen tool and impact driver ready to boogy without any pause and it will work, springs and caps installed and mounted to triples. I used a cut off allen wrench, because it has to be a looong one, and the appropriate socket to fit the cut off allen wrench to the impact driver. I've also done this without the springs installed, better chance with them in.

Insert allen tool into bolt, pull the trigger and boogy on that bolt until it is all the way out. You just can't have more fun than this.

Scott

Yeah, put a couple layers of cardboard under the forks.
All four of these fork legs were Yamaha 650 fork legs and they were done the same way that I do all forks, no problems, no difference, no special tools.

Do you guys use Loctite on these bolts?

Scott
 
Yep I've prolly done 10 or 15 XS650 sets many or even most come apart with a rattle wrench on a long allen socket, but some won't without the tool. I don't use locktite to reassemble. Some bolts are really covered in it.
loosen top pinch bolts, loosen cap, remove all pinch bolts, drop leg, I prefer working with the bolt facing up for removal......
 
Hmmmm....so many choices.

Well, it is late and I'm tired so I'll get at this in the morning and report back. Many thanks everyone!

Pete
 
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Here's a pic from one of the factory shop manuals that actually shows the goop they put on. I never clean them off, just reinstall with the remnants of the factory stuff on there, well I do wipe the old oil off .....

aL3AZ9J.jpg
 
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What TM is talking about will only work on the 35mm forks and damper rods. The rods have holes in the top for the broom handle to jam into .....

DamperRodTops.jpg


Your 34mm damper rod isn't like that. It's solid on top (no hole) and has a post sticking up with flats machined on two sides. You need the slotted socket or something like that. I think the recommendation in the old Clymer's or Haynes was to squeeze the end of a piece of pipe half closed so it would just fit over and grip the flats.






Yup on my '76 I did the thing with the pipe/tubing.
Got a piece of 12mm steel tubing and squashed the sucker in the vice until it fit the top of the damper rod.
Drilled a hole in the other end about 50mm down from the top to jam a punch/screwdriver in as a handle, works a treat.
Have had to re-squash once or twice to re-install as the gap becomes a little larger with use (no pun intended).
 
GW - how long is the piece of tubing and how wide is the slot you squished it down to (sorry for the grammar).

Thx!

Pete
 
GW - how long is the piece of tubing and how wide is the slot you squished it down to (sorry for the grammar).

Thx!

Pete
G'day Pete,

The length of the tubing is 450mm, or 18" for our Yankee friends (there are only 3 countries in the world which are not metric, USA, Myanmar(Burma) and some rinky dinky place in Africa), we in Oz changed in 1966 so much easier.

The squished bit is 10mm and the photo of the damper rod in my sausage fingered hand is cylindrical with two faces milled flat creating 10mm.

The little head in the photo is my assistant, Mr. Myagi my cat, little bugger has to be in everything.

The "I am Canadian" thingy is a beer mat that just happened to get chucked in for shits & giggles.

Cheers,

GW

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