help please (for forks sake)

[Nobby 'C ']

A few months ago I put my forks into a shop to have the oil seals replaced and I used a place that was far cheaper than anywhere else (I know, buy cheap and pay twice). They couldn't undo the allen bolts at the bottom of the forks and, in fact, have managed to round them of somewhat . He replaced the seals from the top without dismantling the forks and that seemed to work for a bit (at least while the shop was still trading) but they are now leaking worse than ever. Does anyone know of a way I can strip the forks and get round the problem of the aleen screws that I can't move? Cheers all.

[Anonymous]

weld or drill

As much as I hate to say it you'll either have to drill the bolts out or weld a nut to them and try to thread them out.
Without taking the forks apart it's quite hard if not impossible to do a thorough cleaning of the forks and get rid of all the old crap that's inside. Depending on the age of the oil and the amount of dirt drawn in the oil could look like honey...Mike

[daveo]

IMO, to do them correctly, you need to get the lowers apart, mine were almost stripped, but I got them out with a hand impact driver,an allen headed socket, and a hammer....if that hadn't worked, I would have tried carefully heating the lower fork leg area around the bolt with propane or MAP gas and tried again, you'll most likely want to open the fork caps and drain the oil first for this to avoid an explosion. If the bolt head is too boogered up to use an allen socket, you can try cutting a slot in it and using a straight blade tip on the impact driver

[RacingJake]

You could drill the heads off the bolts then remove the sliders and then use some vise grips to remove what's left of the bolt if nothing else works.

Sounds like the guy used the wrong size apex/allen wrench and did'nt replace the seals at all. It's almost impossible to remove the seals that way without scratching the tubes.

Good luck

[Billy Ricks]

You wouldn't have anyway to get the new ones on without splitting them. A trick guys use to help clean up seals is to take a very thin piece of stiff plastic and work it down between the seal and the fork. Sometimes you can clean things up just enough like that to get rid of a leak. May have been all they did.

[Anonymous]

When you tackle this job again, keep in mind that there are two ways (as far as I know) to remove those lower bolts. The first way is to use an impact tool. It helps to loosen them before you disassemble the spring, because the spring tension will bear against the damper rod. The second is to disassemble the spring and use a tool to prevent the damper rod from turning. You can make one out of 18" of threaded rod with two 3/4" or 19MM nuts jammed together on the end. Suzuki has a special tool for this, but the makeshift works fine. Inserting the nut into the top of the rod will allow you to keep it from turning while you unscrew the bolt. I've even heard of one guy who used a slightly pointed length of broom handle for this.

Any service manual covers this task. Good luck next time!

[Anonymous]

Ditto.

Man. You need to take Ricks advice and rig up a tool to hold the damper rod wile you loose the bolt on the bottom.

Those jerks who replaced your seals need to refund your money, and buy you some new hardware.

If they didn't know how to hold the damper rod and dismantle you'r forks they had no buisiness touching them in the first place.

Once you get them appart you can clean all the internals, check the springs for wear, and check the teflon components for wear. Also check the fork's for any imperfections that may mess up your new seals.

[jimcor]

I have talked to a couple of guys that used air impact wrenches to remove those bolts without a holder. I have never tried it myself. Of course it depends on how bad they are rounded out...There are, of course, various and sundry methods we use under the shade trees here in Kentucky to remove rounded allen head bolts, from big ol' Phillips head screwdrivers, and whatnot driven into the bolt with a hammer and so on.

[RacingJake]

I've also used a rachet tie down strap to compress the slider up on the tube and used an allen wrench to lose'in the bolt.

[Nobby 'C ']

Thanks for all the advice gents, it's pretty much as I had feared. Ijust wondered if I could dismantle them from the inside. I gues I'mgoing to go with the impact driver when I come to do the job. I'm working on the Honda at the moment so this job will have to wait for a couple of weeks. Oh well, I've still got the car

[Billy Ricks]

Years ago when I still had the stock front end I replaced bushings and seals. I didn't have the special tool for the dampers. All I did was loosen the allen bolts on the bottom and pulled them out. Never used anything to hold the dampers.