Damper Rod Removal

[Wagner73]

So, I figured I would post this to give y'all that have done this many times some comic relief.

I'll start by saying I haven't completely finished the removal job yet. It's 100 degrees in my garage and I am done for today.

Pulled the legs off, upended them in a bucket for an hour or so. I find fork oil to be insidious in hanging around and drooling out just when you think it's all out.

Then I put the springs back in and screwed the caps on to preload them for the next step. Got the trusty impact and tried the left leg...spun. Okay, I rebuilt a '88 FZ750 ~10 years ago with my son...kept the rube goldberg all thread-coupling nut, etc POS that I used on its damper rods and and lo and behold it is a 17 mm hex just like this! Used that to confine the spinning on the left leg with impact and we were halfway done.

Of course the right leg presents its own challenges since an Allen socket won't fit in there. So I clamped a sacrificial 8 mm Allen in my bench vise, got my goldberg tool and just as soon as any torque was introduced, it loosened up, the goldberg I mean. So maybe with more time, some Loctite 272, etc, this could be made to work. But I'm impatient. And I also own Allen sockets from tiny to probably 22 or 24 mm owing to the ZRX1200R that I had for some years...the bike is loaded with jumbo socket head fasteners.

So I grab the 17 mm and find that the OD is almost, but not quite an interference fit in the the fork tube ID...it barely fits in and wants to hang up. So, I decide to rethink this, but no, I'm in too deep and the socket just detaches from the extension (and no tape would've held this puppy). Therefore, I reattach it, work it in until it's engaged in the damper rod, plug it into the viced-up Allen and hit it with the impact. But no, now the lower leg is turning. So, still using the viced Allen and the impact, I add a strap wrench to the fork lower to stop it from turning.

Okay, bolt out...finally. the only thing left to do is figure out how to work the 17 mm socket back up and out the top of the fork tube.

A little levity for the day.

 

[Wagner73]

Ideas for coaxing the socket out of the fork tube are certainly welcome!

 

[Miker Vee]

Ideas for coaxing the socket out of the fork tube are certainly welcome!

Would gently heating the tube with a hot air gun work?
Slightly expanding the tube where the socket is, moving along with it as it (hopefully) comes out.

 

[5twins]

Now that the damper rod bolt is out and the tube separated from the lower, you can push the damper rod up through and out of the tube, forcing the Allen socket up and out with it.

 

[Wagner73]

Yes. I didn't inspect it closely yesterday, as I was burning up and wanted to get out of the garage.

But yes, it was easy enough to tap it from the bottom of the tube with a long extension until it came out enough at the top that I could remove it.

So all good now; onto the cleaning, Minton mods and fork seal replacement. Thanks again, as always!!

 

[Sky King]

"What is tragedy now later becomes comedy." I recently changed the rear tire on my Harley and had just finished torquing the rear axle nut to 100 foot pounds, as I stood up the very heavy socket fell off the torque wrench and of course hit the rear fender on the way down and put a dimple in it. The air was blue in the shop until I calmed down. The stuck socket story reminds me of another of my favorite sayings "No good deed goes unpunished."

 

[Wagner73]

Fork components all cleaned up. Minton mods performed on the damper rods, Installed new OEM seals with the @gggGary tungsten disulfide treatment and the @5twins (and Gary) greasing approach, so I'm hoping for no problems. Also used the old copper washer - Yamabond 4 (in this case Hylomar Blue) - Loctite sealing for the bolts, and so again, hoping for zero problems.