Fork Bushings

[ragtop69gs]

I'll be rebuilding my forks as soon as the parts get here. Looking at the factory service manual, it does not really say HOW to R&R the bushings, any pointers would be most appreciated. Any special tools needed for the bushings?

[MiCarl]

Jay,

 

I'm not sure how much detail you need. I prefer to leave the fork in the tree until the upper and lower are separated. After the damping rod bolt and circlip above the oil seal are removed you use the raise the lower tube a bit then strike downward with it. A few strokes should knock the bushing and oil seal out of the top. DO NOT BANG IT UPWARD ON YOUR RETURN STROKE! YOU CAN DAMAGE THE ANTI-DIVE.

 

Once the lower tube is off you can spread the lower bushing with your thumb nails and slide it off.

[ragtop69gs]

Thanks Carl, How do I instal the new ones without damaging Them? Sorry if I'm asking the obvious, I've never had forks apart before.

[MiCarl]

The bushing on the inner tube you spread with your thumbnails and push it up into it's groove. They don't have that in the service manual that I can see......

 

The rest of the steps are in the service manual starting at the bottom of page 7-52 (page 342 of the online manual in the tech section).

 

Forks are pretty routine, and all damping rod forks are pretty much the same so the service manuals tend not to go into fine detail.

Edited March 30, 2015 by MiCarl

[MiCarl]

I looked at some tutorials for you and didn't find any I much like.......

 

So, here is how I'd tackle an RSV:

 

1) Remove whatever you need to of the fairing to get to the pinch bolts that hold the forks into the upper and lower tree.

 

2) Unbolt brake calipers and tie them off to the motorcycle so they aren't hanging from the brake lines or banging around. Undo the pinch bolt on the axle and break the axle loose.

 

3) Jack up the front of the motorcycle to where the tire is still touching the ground but you can turn the wheel with your hand.

 

4) Pull the axle. Jack the bike higher to where you can roll the wheel and tire out.

 

5) Remove the fender.

 

6) Let the air out of the forks and pull the cores from the Schrader valves.

 

7) Put something under the forks to catch the oil that runs out. Use an impact wrench to remove the socket head cap screws that anchor the damping rods. When you do this the lower tube will drop about 6" and oil will begin to drain.

 

8) Loosen the pinch bolts on the upper tree and crack the fork caps loose - do not remove yet.

 

9) I do not recall how to remove the covers that the RSV has over the upper fork tube. You're on your own here or perhaps someone can chime in.

***

From here do ONE fork at a time.

***

9a) you might be able to loosen the pinch bolts on the lower tree and slide the fork down to where you can work on the top of the lower tube. If so, you can do this instead of removing the covers in step 9. Re-clamp the lower pinch bolts to hold the fork.

 

10) Pry off the dust seal and slide it up the upper tube out of your way.

 

11) Remove the circlip that holds the oil seal, washer and bushing in the lower tube. Leave it around the upper tube, don't force it off.

 

At this point things will be much less messy if you let the forks drain over night. I strongly recommend a 10-12 hour break. Prepare a clean work area about 4 feet long and cover it with clean rags or heavy duty paper towels.

 

12) Lift the lower tube a couple inches and stroke downward smartly. Make sure you don't end up splashing or spilling your drain pan when it comes off. It may take several strikes to get the lower tube off. Lay it down on your clean work area. Do not use a lot of force (you don't want to pull the motorcycle over), just sharp raps. Don't bang the lower tube up or you can damage the oil lock.

 

13) At this point the upper tube is still clamped to the lower tree. On it (from bottom to top) are the lower bushing, upper bushing, washer, oil seal, circlip and dust seal. Pay attention to how everything is - it needs to go back the same way. It'll look similar to this picture:

In the picture the dust seal and circlip are not shown. The aluminum piece at the far left is probably still in your lower tube, don't forget to get it out. Yamaha typically calls it the oil lock. This is the piece you will damage if you slam the lowers up when knocking the lower tube off.

 

14) Loosen the lower tree pinch bolts and take your upper tube to your work area.

 

15) Remove the fork cap (there is some spring pressure, keep some down force on it so it doesn't fly away.). Pull out the spring, slide the dust seal, circlip, oil seal, washer and upper bushing off the upper tube. Lay all this stuff out the way it came off. Dump out the damping rod, spread the lower bushing and pull it off. Pay attention to which end of the fork spring goes up.

 

16) Clean everything thoroughly.

 

17) Drop the damping rod back into the upper tube, install the spring and the cap (oil the cap o-ring) but no need to make the cap tight. Slip the new lower bushing into the groove. Slather the lower bushing with some fork oil.

 

18) Hold the upper tube with the damping rod pointing up. Set the oil lock on. Slide the lower tube down over the upper and install the socket head cap screw (don't forget the loc-tite). Torque the cap screw per the service manual.

 

19) Remove the fork cap and spring.

 

20) Slather the new upper bushing with fork oil and drop it down the upper tube, following it with the washer. Drive bushing and washer home with a seal driver or a piece of PVC pipe.

 

21) Get the oil off the very top of the upper fork tube (I use brake clean). Wrap the top of the tube with 1 1/2 turns of electrical tape so the tape hangs over the edge. This is to protect your new seal from the sharp edge.

 

22) Slather your new seal with fork oil. Push it down the upper tube so the side with two inner lips points down and the single lip points up. Drive it home with your seal driver/PVC pipe (Make sure your PVC pipe has a big enough ID it's not damaging the upper lip.

 

23) Install the circlip.

 

24) Oil up the dust seal and slide it into place. You might have to tap it home with a soft mallet or your seal driver/PVC pipe.

 

25) Add and set oil level per the service manual.

 

26) Slide the inner tube UP all the way and keep it there. Slowly drop in the fork spring (right side up) and install the cap. Make sure the o-ring on the cap is lubed. It might be easier to torque the cap after the fork is back on the motorcycle.

 

27) Re-install the fork per the service manual. If the cap isn't torqued torque the lower pinch bolts, then the cap, then the upper pinch bolt.

 

Go back to 9a and do the other side.

 

Put the rest of the motorcycle back together.

 

An extra set of hands is helpful for many of the steps.

[ragtop69gs]

Wow Carl ! Thank you for this post it's going to help lots of us rookie wrenches feel a bit better about getting into the forks.

 

Thank you.

[ragtop69gs]

OK,, I have the first fork leg on the bench & disassembled. Looking at the lower leg it is dull and lightly pitted from years of road debris hit it, whats the best way to clean them up without spending countless hours on each one? Anyoe have a set of chrome lower fork legs for sale?

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/04/16/8d45b615c34a6509f3011bdaa5ad6994.jpg

Edited April 16, 2015 by ragtop69gs

[ragtop69gs]

First leg polished up. Next comes re-assembly.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/04/17/d1168259f2de77e61700bbee0e1567f1.jpg

[ragtop69gs]

I completed the fork job today, getting to them took some time but the actual process of rebuilding the forks was pretty easy. Thank you Carl, your blow by blow helped immensely.

Also thanks to Carbon One (Larry) for coming by to lend a hand in getting it all buttoned up today.

[StarFan]

Great job and wow,,,they came out nice.

Next winter I will do mine. Have all the compounds and wheels, just don´t want to tear the bike apart right now since the riding season has just started.

Would be nice to see a picture when both forks are polished and installed on bike.

Outstanding work

[ragtop69gs]

Here you go Jonas

[StarFan]

They Look Fantastic ! Can´t wait to get mine done.

Outstanding job !!

[eagleeye]

They Look Fantastic ! Can´t wait to get mine done.

Outstanding job !!

 

Couldn't agree more. They look great!

Maybe next winter I'll do mine. I've polished the cases on my XS650 so I know how to do it, and you nailed it.

Great checklist by MiCarl!

[cowpuc]

Beautiful piece of work there Raggy!! @Freebird, I wonder if we could get Carls fork list moved into the read only Tech section (probably already there) so it dont get lost in the shuffle - AWESOME INFO CARL!!

[Freebird]

No problem. Done.

[MiCarl]

I wonder if we could get Carls fork list moved into the read only Tech section

 

Need someone to take pictures while they do it....

[ragtop69gs]

I thought about taking pictures while I did the job but oily hands and picture taking don't go well together.

 

Thanks again Carl, the job went smooth. Now if the weather would dry up I could try out my handiwork.