Front fork lowers - removal

boxerpan · Post by **boxerpan** » Mon May 10, 2004 4:58 pm

I need to remove the fork lowers and leave the tubes and top/bottom yokes in place.
Is this possible?
Has anyone done this proceedure?
Any tips?

Thanks for your advice,
Lloyd

carlk · Post by **carlk** » Mon May 10, 2004 5:28 pm

sounds tricky to me you could take the forks out one by one and dismantle them and put the top bit back before removing the next one

lots of peeing about tho' just a thought

boxerpan · Post by **boxerpan** » Mon May 10, 2004 6:56 pm

I dont want to take the bottom yoke off the front wishbone if I can help it and the whole assembly is too long to drop thru unless I dig a pit in the garage and that would mean having the carpet refitted.

lloyd

gus · Post by **gus** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:57 pm

NO no NO no.Been there tried that.I wanted to anodise my tubes awhile ago and asked the questions to the people who should know.Apparantly they are pressed/glued together and will not come apart without the use of black magic or voodoo.I tried with chicken bones and stones to no avail.OK heat and hammers.Still no luck.Ended up painting the tubes,deep metallic blue as it happens,but i aint happy still and want them all black.Am i right in thinking that you wanna have a set of radial mounts made for the fork lowers?If i am you aint the first who wanted to do that.I,m sure if you throw enough money at someone somethging can be arranged though.I,ve just been pondering myself how to mount some brembo goldline calipers of a mille i got a while back.Billet adaptors look the best bet,anodised black of course.
gus

winger · Post by **winger** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:17 pm

Lloyd

Takeing the bottom yoke off isn't a problem,it's separateing the ball joint from the bottom yoke thats the shit and you don't need to do that.

Forgot to say,if you phone tommorow remind me!! ask about tyres for 749 i'll tell you a story!!!!

Chris

boxerpan · Post by **boxerpan** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:23 pm

I still need to remove the fork lowers to replace them with the pre 2000 type, I just thought to leave the top tubes in place if I could.

Lloyd

gus · Post by **gus** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:41 pm

Doh!
Sorry Lloyd just reread your post.Looks like i got the shitty end of the stick again.As chris said it aint hard taking the bottom yoke off,getting the ball joint off is.The sliders come out the tubes easy.What i couldnt do was completly remove the internals of the tubes.There is a allen screw under the fork leg which i tried to undo to no avail,hence the paint and not the anodising.Please except my most humble appologies for earlier out burst .

gus

boxerpan · Post by **boxerpan** » Tue May 11, 2004 6:31 am

How are the tubes held on to the lowers?

Lloyd

carlk · Post by **carlk** » Tue May 11, 2004 10:07 am

I take it you cant raise the front of the bike in the air (beam & straps, hoist, hired bike lift?)
if brum's not too far I have the resources in my garage

mdouglas · Post by **mdouglas** » Tue May 11, 2004 10:23 am

Why is taking the lower ball joint out of the front wishbone such a challenge ?

I did it when I had a R1200C (don't laugh) and I had to swap the fork bridge. (Some "under the arches" car wash had used what appeared to be neat wheel cleaner and screwed up the anodised finish.) It wasn't at all difficult. I can't even remember how I did it so it couldn't have been much of an issue (I tend to remember jobs that give me gip).

I have a scissor type ball joint splitter as used on cars that probably featured in the process (or maybe just a large whack with a rubber mallet). And the fact that the pin of the balljoint has an internal hex means it's a piece of cake to undo and tighten the nut that retains it. Indeed, with a breaker bar and suitable hex bit, you could probably use this feature to twist the ball pin which will help it separate (I'd apply heat to the wishbone before trying that though. And a spray with Plus Gas left to soak in for a bit would do no harm either)

If it were me, I'd split the lower ball joint, back off the top bridge clamping bolts (remove the retaining rings) and drop the whole fork/ lower bridge assembly. That way, you only need about 4 inches of downward movement.

The harder job is removing the ball joint from the bridge - its a huge hex and it's difficult to grip the bridge without damaging it. I see from the repair manual that there is a special tool that is essentially two fork diameter pins welded to a piece of angle iron. You grip the angle iron in the vice and push the bridge down onto the 2 pins. On the R1200C, I ended up gripping the flats of the balljoint in the vice and whacking the bridge with a rubber mallet (in an anti-clockwise rotational manner of course as oposed to just blootering it with a hammer!).

boxerpan · Post by **boxerpan** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:45 pm

carlk wrote:I take it you cant raise the front of the bike in the air (beam & straps, hoist, hired bike lift?)
if brum's not too far I have the resources in my garage

Thanks for the offer but the front end may be in bits for a couple of weeks with all the piddling about that is due to commence.

Lloyd

Jason M · Post by **Jason M** » Tue May 11, 2004 6:31 pm

gus wrote:NO no NO no.Been there tried that.I wanted to anodise my tubes awhile ago and asked the questions to the people who should know.Apparantly they are pressed/glued together and will not come apart without the use of black magic or voodoo.I tried with chicken bones and stones to no avail.OK heat and hammers.Still no luck.Ended up painting the tubes,deep metallic blue as it happens,but i aint happy still and want them all black.Am i right in thinking that you wanna have a set of radial mounts made for the fork lowers?If i am you aint the first who wanted to do that.I,m sure if you throw enough money at someone somethging can be arranged though.I,ve just been pondering myself how to mount some brembo goldline calipers of a mille i got a while back.Billet adaptors look the best bet,anodised black of course.
gus

Gus - what you want to be on the look out for is a smashed up Rockster that's taken it hard up the Gary

Aren't their front ends the same as the S, but, crucially, all black, including the tubes - luuuuvvery

Jason

gus · Post by **gus** » Tue May 11, 2004 7:44 pm

What a picture ay,a rock star getting it hard up the gary glitter.Its enough to make your eyes water!

I hadnt noticed they were black....Hhhmmmm!
I wander how hard i would get shafted for a set of them though?
Financially speaking of course!
gus

Jason M · Post by **Jason M** » Tue May 11, 2004 8:01 pm

gus wrote:What a picture ay,a rock star getting it hard up the gary glitter.Its enough to make your eyes water!
I hadnt noticed they were black....Hhhmmmm!
I wander how hard i would get shafted for a set of them though?
Financially speaking of course!
gus

You might find the price a little stiff, but I'm sure you'd have people bending over backwards to help

They sure would look very tasty

gus · Post by **gus** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:56 pm

Filth!Total filth!

gus