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Fork Disassembly Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi All,

While tearing down my forks last night I ran into a new one (for me at least). One of the damper rod bolts would NOT come loose. Period. I ended up partly stripping out the socket head bolt trying to get it out. This is not the problem of the damper rod turning inside the slider. This bolt would not even break loose enough to allow the damper rod to move. The other one came out as usual, with no problems at all.

So, am I at the point of drilling it out until I can turn it and cleaning out the threads in the damper rod or does somebody have a better idea? Heat? Shotgun? Anything else? I have pulled apart a couple different sets of forks before these and that bolt has never been very tight, the problem is always the damper rod turning inside the slider. Never simply breaking the bolt loose. :(

Mark
 
Mark,

I'm confused. I thought the damper rod could rotate freely regardless of how tight the bolt is? Are you holding the damper rod in place at the top to keep it from rotating? I've always used an air impact wrench to remove the bolt and have never needed to hold the rod at the top. I hope you get this solved soon as I'm guessing you're doing this to install the Race Tech Cartridge Emulators. My emulators and springs should arrive Monday so I'm anxious to hear your results.

By the way, can you possibly take notes and pictures while you're installing the emulators to help others (me) who might install them?

Thanks,
Joe
 
I used a long wooden dowel that I sanded into a slight taper at one end. Did you do this? That's what the manual suggests. If that didn't work, I don't know what your options are.
 
weld

weld

I believe what Mark is saying that he never even got to the point of the damper turning, he stripped the head of the socket head bolt, If I read you correct.
If so, take it to a local welding shop and get them to weld a nut to the stripped bolt and use that to turn the stripped bolt out. Usually the heat from welding will loosen the stuck threads.
Make sure to cover the forks with a damp rag to guard against spatter and watch where you put the ground, don't want any arc strikes anywhere....Mike
 
I'm confused. I thought the damper rod could rotate freely regardless of how tight the bolt is? Are you holding the damper rod in place at the top to keep it from rotating? I've always used an air impact wrench to remove the bolt and have never needed to hold the rod at the top. I hope you get this solved soon as I'm guessing you're doing this to install the Race Tech Cartridge Emulators.
Click to expand...

The damper rod gets clamped tight to the fork slider when the bolt is made up tight. The rotating problem comes when you manage to even slightly break the bolt loose. The clamping force is lost and the rod can then rotate at that point. I was using an air impact and it would not even budge the bolt. Nothing was turning at that point, it is still all solid and tight. I have never had a problem with this bolt, either. The other fork leg was no problem, I simply broke the bolt loose with a breaker bar and used the impact to spin the bolt out.

My biggest problem is that the socket on the bolt is now partly rounded out, so I do not have the ability to put much torque into it. It was a loose fit on the hex key from the first try, so it may have been damaged from the last work done on the fork, before I ever got to it. I think I will go buy a couple of left hand twist drill bits at lunch and start drilling out the core of the bolt tonight. The LH twist (you use the drill in reverse) puts a continual force on the bolt that wants to unscrew it and as you drill out the core of the bolt, it begins to collapse and loosen on the mating thread. Hopefully, that will solve the problem.

Does anybody know if that bolt is stainless steel or not? It sure looks like it to me and a magnet didn't get much bite on it, so it could be. That will be a problem for the drilling if it is... :?

Joe, yes this is for my rebuild and emulator installation. I plan to do a small write up with pics and see if bwringer wants it on his maintenance site for posterity. I was just about at the point of starting pics when that bolt refused to come loose. :(

Ah well, where would the challenge be if everything always worked the way it is supposed to? :)

The worst that will happen is I will trash the fork leg trying to get this bolt out and I will need to buy a vew fork off E-bay...


Mark
 
Small update - after talking this over with one of the guys at work, I think I am simply going to drill out the head of the bolt and pull the damping rod with the screw shank still in it. Then I can worry about extracting the shank from the damper rod without the fork slider in the way. There should be enough shank sticking out to get a pipe wrench on it and then I will win! :)

I will post how I make out tomorrow.

Thanks for the thoughts on this.


Mark
 
mark m said:
Small update - after talking this over with one of the guys at work, I think I am simply going to drill out the head of the bolt and pull the damping rod with the screw shank still in it. Then I can worry about extracting the shank from the damper rod without the fork slider in the way. There should be enough shank sticking out to get a pipe wrench on it and then I will win! :)

I will post how I make out tomorrow.

Thanks for the thoughts on this.


Mark
Click to expand...

Sounds like the best way
 
There should be a recess on top of the damper tube that will take a 19MM hex or 3/4" hex. If you double nut 1/2"NC nuts on both ends of piece of threaded 1/2" ready rod about 2 feet long you should be able to loosen the damper rod from inside the fork enough to get the allen bolt out. If double nutting isn't strong enough maybe weld the nuts to the rod. It will give you much more leverage than the allen bolt.
 
you can try this too it's kinda simple but has always worked for me in a pinch. try tighting the bolt if it still has some bite left then try loosening it and keep doing this back and forth. this usally breaks things loose. some times you have to tighten things to loosen them.

-ryan
 
Hey Joe,

Good news! I got the drill out and the screw came out with no problems. So I now have two fork legs all apart on the bench. :)

It will likely be a couple of weeks before I am finished with the mods and emulators, but I will take pics and do a small write up on the procedure.


Mark
 
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