Need quick fork help...

[Anonymous]

Heres' the story. I'm rebuilding the front end on my 79 gs1000l. Done with brakes, started on the forks today. Got one of the tubes off, but I cannot get it disassembled. I am really not seeing how to take the top part of the tube off. By top part I mean, the part that holds the air valve. I'm not quite sure what I'm missing.

tried searching, but after making it through about 4 pages I gave up.

Mike

[Dink]

Look at the very bottom of the forkleg, where the axle goes through. There is an allen key bolt there that holds the damper rod, once that bolt is removed; a character building exercise sometimes , the two legs will be seperable. The best way to do it I have found is to up end the forkleg over a broom handle, to hold the damper rod whilst you remove the bolt, beware the bolt is often very hard to get out.
Dink

[KEITH KRAUSE]

The cap, with the air valve in it, will come off with an adjustable wrench or whatever fits well enough. Be careful what you use. The soft aluminum gouges easily. To loosen the caps, put the forks back in and tighten the fork pinch bolts and then loosen the caps.
Like Dink said, the Allen bolts on the bottom are tight and hard to loosen.

[Anonymous]

fork seal "scrapers"

On a related note: Is it possible to avoid separating the upper and lower fork legs (and than terrible bottom bolt) and still replace the seals?

Clay

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Re: fork seal "scrapers"

On a related note: Is it possible to avoid separating the upper and lower fork legs (and than terrible bottom bolt) and still replace the seals?

Clay

No sir.

[Mr. Jiggles]

I've heard of compressing the fork to pop the seal out but I've always used the traditional method.

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Thanks

Thanks. The reason I asked is because when I tried to take off the exhaust headers, I broke two of the inner most header bolts off and ended up getting the shop to drill and tap them out at a cost of almost $200. Don't want to get into a situation where I'm stuck with a bolt broken in the fork leg and the bike on the lift.

Thanks.

Clay

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. It turns out that the first tube was just particularly stubborn. The second came off like a charm and so did the rest of the tear down/re-assembly. Now I just have to get some air in the forks.

I've heard some conflicting stories on how much psi I should be running, any suggestions? '79 GS1000L with an extra 280 lbs sitting on it...

[SqDancerLynn1]

Depending on how firm you want it I would try 10 lbs as a starting point

[KEITH KRAUSE]

10 lbs is good. I run Progressive springs with a 1/2" pvc spacer for pre-load. Just don't put in too much air or the seals can fail. The maximum (on my '79 1000E) is 35 psi. I would'nt put in anything close to that. And don't use compressed air because the forks fill fast. Just use a hand pump.