Ever bite off more than you can chew? (long)

[67670]

Bought another airhead last spring. 83 r100 CS-great bike. Decided it had a few issues around the front end area and so tore into them last week. First off-small leak in the forks. Never had a fork apart. Tried to read about it in my 2 manuels. Didn't exactly follow everything, but figured I'd learn as I went along. So, started taking off everything down to the forks. Got it stripped down and was noticing that my steering felt kind of "notchy". Thought I would look at the steering bearings along the way. It actually felt like the steering fell in a groove when pointed straight and came out when turning either way. I'm thinking this isn't good, probably need new bearings and I hope my races are ok. I get down to the adjustment nut and it is a bear to turn. I run it all the way off and it was extreemly tight the whole way off. Take the fork off. The races look great. Wipe grease off of everything. The bearings look great. Scratching my head. Think maybe I should put it back and see if it still feels odd, maybe there was some trash in all that grease or something. Put fork back and get nut started. Decide that the nut needs a tap run through or the stem needs a die run over, but it just shouldn't be this tight. Don't see anything else wrong, but how could it get this way? Well, no large metric taps or dies in my shop, so onward to the front forks. I'm reading as I go. Get oil drained. Book says to take out allen bolt in the bottom of fork. Then take top nut off and remove spring. Then pull the lower slider off. I do this and clean up and decide to do the other tube. I get to where you take the allen bolt out of the bottom. As I'm torquing on it, I feel it break loose. Only it is the damper rod inside the upper tube that is turning. My manuel says these bolts can be really hard to remove. Sometimes you can "shock" them with an impact driver. If not, take them to a dealer. I don't understand what a dealer could do with this situation. Also, how can the bolts be torqued to anything halfway tight when you put it back together? So, I've got half my fork apart and thinking of sending it to a dealer in Bentonville, Ar. and let them put the new seals in and put back together. I hate to be baffled mechanically, but I am. If anyone has any good advice for me, I'd love to hear it. Thanks, Brad

 

[kstoo]

If you don't see any wear in the race from the needle bearings then your notchiness could have just been old grease that had solidified.

 

[20774]

I think on the '80s forks, if you have the weight of the bike sitting on the spring and the slider, that helps to stablize the damper rod and then the nut comes off the bottom.

On my '78, the damper rod has an allen opening in the center and a 12mm nut that secures it to the bottom of the slider. I put the 12mm socket into my vise grips so I get access to the allen through the socket center. Put the socket-vise grips onto the nut, stick the allen wrench through the center, and then turn off the 12mm nut while stablizing the damper rod.

As another reference, Snowbum has an article on taking apart forks. In addition, IBMWR has a series of tech articles, one for the /7 forks which I used extensively to overhaul my forks:

http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/airheads/index.shtml

 

[mneblett]

I agree with the old grease comment -- that was at least part of the problem with my '88. That said, those bearings/races are nearly 30 years old, and the replacements are relatively cheap, even at a dealer. A quick search should provide several ideas for ways to remove the races and the lower bearing, and sources for tools if you want to do the job quick/cleanly. Don't forget to buy a repalcement for the grease cup/plate under the lower bearing.

I also agree with Kurt -- put the spring back in and there should be enough force on the top of the damper rod to break the allen loose -- worked for me.

 

[ccolwell]

I think on the '80s forks, if you have the weight of the bike sitting on the spring and the slider, that helps to stablize the damper rod and then the nut comes off the bottom.

Ditto. I never had any problem getting them off on my '84 R100 with it on the side stand. IIRC, the 'proper method' requires getting the cap off and the spring out. You then drain the oil and clamp the fork slider. Push the leg all the way into the slider; then you'll be able to see some sort of nut (a slotted screw type sticks in my memory) that you can secure from one end, with several extensions, while using the allen wrench at the other. Best done with a helper.