| Author | Message | ||
     Xbimmer |
Undertook this job yesterday out of necessity and the fact that I can't trust my dealer to do an effective warranty repair. Aside from the fact that the OFSM has quite a few vague directions in this department and others it's still a good guide for the job. Being new at this I spent a lot of time checking the book between moves. The first and right fork took me several hours (!) but the second/left less than 1 hour. Here's what I've learned: 1: For the Uly the upper fender can stay, later the OFSM tells you to recheck the headlight adjustment so if you leave the upper there that's not needed. 2: The OFSM doesn't mention removing the handlebar aside, but believe me this really makes things easier especially if you don't have a clamping device to work with the fork later. With a good 1.25" 6-point deep socket and the upper triple clamp bolts released the fork cap can easily be loosened and torqued later. For the record, most of the stuff on my right fork was WAY tighter than the left, I had to break loose the right cap with a breaker bar but the left came loose with just a 1/2" ratchet and no chingering of the corners. 3: The OFSM also tells you to remove the upper stopper ring after sliding the tube down out of the upper clamp but at least on my bike the ring clears through the lower clamp just fine w/o problem or even contact. Good thing too because trying to lever it out of its groove and up over the fork outer tube would surely have caused more fork scratching then I would have accepted. I marked the positions of the forks in the lower clamps at the locations of the splits. 4: So now you have a fork out, disassembly is very easy, IF you've sprung for a fork spring compressor like Al sells over at American Sport Bike. Once you compress the spring and expose the rebound adjuster assembly's flats to grab to remove the top cap, you don't need to worry about the preload pins if you just flip them up with their carrier ring out of the top cap. Set it aside with its washer in a SAFE place since it's small and looks fragile. Breaking the cap free from the adjuster needs a 17mm wrench on the adjuster and a 1.25" or 32mm socket or wrench on the cap, I found a perfect tall 6pt at Pep Boys and when faced with soft metal like on the adjuster I use my clamping crescent-type wrench. Once again the right fork took some real force but the left side was easy. 5: If you have some reason to remove the damper assy go ahead but for the oil change or seal change it's not required. 6: Like the OFSM says once you remove the dust seal and stopper ring the lower "slide hammers" right out of the outer tube, along with the oil seal, seal washer, and guide/slide bushings. These bushings showed no wear after 32k on my forks but I replaced them anyway, they're cheap. 7: After cleaning up the disassembled fork, reassembly is easy too. The manual doesn't tell/show you but the order of install of the bushings is guide bushing between the oil seal spacer and slide bushing. Make sure you tape up the end of the slider leg before intalling the oil seal. 8: Now for the fun parts. I'm sure there are garage-contrived methods to do the jobs and I'm all for that but since I plan to put at least 20-30k per year on my Buell I sprang for the tools and they are great. Race Tech spring compressor from American Sport Bike, Motion Pro fork oil leveler, Motion Pro 43mm seal driver. The spring compressor works like a champ and I'll likely clamp it to my bench next time. The seal driver with a layer of paper towel between its halves and the tube takes only 4-5 slides to seat the seal/spacer/bushing. The leveler works awesome also, unless you get too determined and pull the plunger out and dump fluid all over yourself...  9: If you're reinstalling your '06 springs you'll need 3 bottles of HD Type-E fluid to achieve the 113mm levels in the forks. I finally put in my '07 springs (They absolutely ROCK!) and 2 bottles were fine for the requisite 172mm per fork. 10: Reinstall of the forks is easy and when the lower clamp is snugged the cap can be torqued easily. Double-check everything upon buttoning up. I expect that now that I've got all the stuff I need I'll accomplish this in under three hours in the future. I also added Moose Racing Fork Skins to the forks, pics in another thread and I think this is a good thing to protect my seals in the future. (Message edited by xbimmer on August 20, 2007) | ||
| Stevenknapp |
Moving the handlebar and using a good socket (deep well was required for me, which was hard to find and $$$) or box end wrench were the two tricks I learned while doing mine. I was unable to remove the forks without removing the upper stopper ring, but was able to remove both rings without scratching the forks. FYI. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/250247.html?1168355821 |
