Vehicle Suspension Repair and Maintenance Guide

 

The fork legs off the bike, it'll be a lot easier to crack the fork cap free if you do it while it's still clamped in the triple clamp. But if you've already removed the legs, you'll want to clamp the tube into a soft jaw vice. Crack the fork cap free, don't completely loosen it just yet.

Loosening the Damper Rod Bolt

There's also a bolt at the bottom of the fork tube that we need to loosen. The bolt at the bottom of the fork is too recessed to be accessed with your average Allen socket.

So, it may be necessary to buy a long-reach piece or improvise by cutting the foot off a spare Allen key and then turning it using the appropriate size socket. Just loosen the bolt for now. If it's extremely stubborn, applying heat from a propane torch will help get it free.

Removing the Fork Cap

The fork cap is loose, and the damper rod bolt is loose. Now we're going to remove the fork cap all the way. It’s a key part of the process when doing a cheap car servicing Coventry. The spring is applying pressure to the fork cap, so it's going to try and pop off once you unthread it. You want to take some care when doing this.

It's a good idea that once you see the sealing O-ring, you cover the cap with a rag and turn it the rest of the way. This will help prevent it from flying off into your shop. Things are about to get oily, so now is a good time to lay out some newspaper or pig mat and put on some latex gloves.

Removing Fork Components

Remove the fork cap and set it aside. Then fish out the washers, preload spacer, fork spring, and, in this case, the gold valve emulator. A magnet on a stick is going to be handy here, but you can also use a cut-up clothes hanger. Do yourself a favour and lay everything out on your mat in the order that it was removed.

Draining the Fork Oil

Now we're going to drain the fork oil. You'll want a suitable container, and you'll want to stroke the fork several times to help expel all the old oil. Look at that dirty old stuff.

Fork DisassemblyRemoving the Lower Fork Bolt

Now it's time to remove the chrome stanchion from the lower fork leg. We're going to unscrew the bolt that we cracked free earlier. You may find that when you turn that bolt, something inside the fork is spinning; that's the damper rod.

Removing the Dust Seal and Snap Ring

Now we're going to remove the dust seal from the fork leg. Make sure you keep this thing level because it's still filled with some pretty dirty oil. Be extra careful that you don't slip and gouge the stanchion.

Next, use your screwdriver to remove the snap ring.

Separating the Fork Tubes

Now we're going to separate the fork. You're essentially going to be using the stanchion and the inner fork bushing as a slide hammer to drive the fork seal out of the fork lower. Give it a few good hits, and it should come right out.

Inspecting the Components

Here are the rest of the parts: you have the fork seal, steel washer, the inner bushing that the stanchion slides along, and then we also have a bottom-out cone and the damper rod. Now we're going to inspect them, clean them, replace the worn components, and reassemble everything.

You'd never take a fork this far apart and not replace your oil seal, but you might decide to reuse your bushings. In which case, you want to inspect it and make sure that the inner slick surface is intact.

Fork Parts List

So here are the parts of your fork:

• Fork cap
• Washers and preload spacer
• Fork spring
• Gold valve emulator
• Dust seal
• Circlip
• Oil seal
• Washer
• Outer bushing
• Damper rod
• Bottom-out cone
• Stanchion with the inner bushing
• Fork lower

Cleaning and Preparing Components

I'm now going to clean all of these components. You can use an aerosol solvent or even isopropyl alcohol. We'll be replacing all the wear components in this fork, including the oil seals and bushes. These kits from All Balls contain everything you need and are available online for about 60 bucks.

Reassembly ProcessInstalling the Stanchion Bushing

Now it's out with the old stuff and in with the fresh new stuff. The first thing we're going to do is install the stanchion bushing. You should just be able to spread the bush with your fingers and slide it on the stanchion.

Throughout assembly, we will be lubricating all the friction components with clean fork oil. Lubricate the fork stanchion bushing liberally.

Installing the Damper Rod

Next up, we’re going to take the damper rod, slide it into the stanchion, and then take the bottom-out cone and place it over the end. Press it firmly against the end.

Next, you have your damper rod bolt with nice, clean threads, and you’re going to install a fresh copper crush washer from your kit. Put a very small amount of blue thread lock on the threads. Then screw this into the bottom of the fork into the damper rod. These things matter when doing any suspension repair Coventry.

Connecting Fork Components

With the damper rod bolt installed, the two parts of the fork are now connected. We haven’t torqued the bolt yet because we still need to put in the spring, the spacer, and the fork cap to apply some pressure to the damper rod so it doesn’t spin. First, we’re going to install the upper bush, the oil seal, the dust seal, and everything else.