Front end reassembly

[Philly_Chris]

I am going to bite the bullet(halfway at least) and send my forks out to have new seals installed. I'm saving 50 bucks by removing them myself though, and was wondering about the reinstallation and torquing sequence once I get them back.
How am I assured they are not twisted by a few degrees? is it just by eyeballing at the axle holders?

Thanks,
Chris

[earlfor]

Theres probably a dozen different way to do this, so I'll just say what works for me. I put the bike on the centerstand, place a concrete block under the engine and then a piece of 2 x 4 between the block and the engine so the front wheel is off the ground. Slide the fork tubes in place in the triple trees and tighten the pinch bolts on the trees just enough to hold the forks. Put the wheel and axle in place and lightly screw down the axle caps with your fingers. You now have the fork tubes and wheel assembly hanging in mid air. I then put a block under the front tire so the tire will stay at the height I have it. Next loosen the pinch bolts on the triple trees and the fork tubes and tire/wheel will be resting on the block under the tire. Now, tighten the axle caps, making sure the tighten them so that the spaces between the caps and the mating surface on the lower forks is equal front to back. You want both axle caps tightened showing a equal gap all around. Once the axle caps are tightened, at this point, you can shim the tire up or down to adjust the fork tube height above the top triple tree. I then tighten the pinch bolts on the triple trees. By tightening the axle caps first while leaving the fork tree pinch bolts loose, the axle will self seat to a 90 deg angle to the fork tubes.

Earl

[Anonymous]

I am just about to do my fork seals (when all the parts come in). In the course of reading up about this, I came across a nifty tip to make sure that the forks are aligned properly in the triple trees. The tip was to use a small pane of glass laid across the sliders to make sure they are not twisted with respect to each other. I have had my local hardware store cut a 5" x 10" pane in preparation. Sorry I can't give you an "after-action" report yet.

Simon

[Philly_Chris]

Thanks for the tips,

I too am waiting for parts to come in. The darn fork seal were the one thing that was back ordered(and of course the most important) out of like 6 things i ordered. By the time I get my bike insured and roadworthy, it'll be winter