Dampner Spring Replacemant

[chuck hahn]

2 questions...once i grind the rivets to seperate the halves, can i mig weld them back in..and 2, where do i get replacement rivets or what do youn use to replace them with??

[Suzuki_Don]

Chuck I have never done this myself, but it is on my list to do with a spare clutch basket that I have. MIG welding should be fine if done properly. And you use the same rivets that are in the basket. After the heads are ground off the rivets and the springs tensioned appropriately, the rivets are replaced and the end that was ground off is then welded flush to the backing plate.

[salty_monk]

Usually they tig weld them & they just build up a pool of weld on the end of the rivet where it meets the backing plate....

This was in Classic Bike... not tried it & our bigger bikes have more weight/power but with the right bolts & some red loctite it might work fine.

[chuck hahn]

I was trying to find any threads using search cuz i thought i remembered someone posting pics of the welds on the back. May have been deleted when Frank cleaned shop. In any case, i think i am very much capable of migging them back in place.

[verde]

I MIGed mine and so far so good with a few hundred miles on it. Would definitely TIG if I had the opportunity though.

Biggest thing is it's really tricky to clamp that backing plate on tight and square again... you'll know when you're not quite there yet because the ground ends of the rivets won't be flush with the plate. To help push everything into place with big C-clamps, I used some random pieces of hardware and scrap to bridge over the rivet holes on the plate side, and sockets or nuts on the rivet heads on the basket side to make sure I was clamping rivet only, not basket.

[verde]

I was trying to find any threads using search cuz i thought i remembered someone posting pics of the welds on the back. May have been deleted when Frank cleaned shop. In any case, i think i am very much capable of migging them back in place.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=160396&highlight=rivet

This the one you're thinking of? I definitely referenced it when I when I did mine. Search key word "rivet" in this forum gets a hand full of relevant threads.

[salty_monk]

Here's mine fresh from the Tig welder... $25. I prepped & clamped it with Nessism's help.

[verde]

Maybe my rivets were just a tight fit, but when I first tired clamping like that the backing plate flexed too much.

Here, from this thread, the professional's version. Kinda like the tool you use for pulling valve keepers except for welding access, and it sounds like they have one big one for the whole basket instead of 3 individual clamps like the rest of us have to do:

Actually you don't clamp on top of the rivets on the back side. It won't work that way. We have fixtures that locate on the rivet heads inside the basket, then a ring that pushes on the back plate. When tightened down, it pushes the rivets up thru the plate and locks it all together. Then the rivets are exposed to be welded.