Getting fork tubes into trees?

[syscrusher]

One of the excellent members here recently sent me a set of fork tubes to rebuild my forks after the April accident I had.

I've got one of the tubes in (on the left side) but when getting up to the top tree on the right they're really not lining up.

I'm trying to do this by myself since trainable help is hard to find here.

 

I used a very large screwdriver in the cap to pry it into place on the left but on the right side it is off right where the pincher splits. The short side of the pincher won't move at all when pryed and the full lock position has the pincher up next to the display so that prying is limited anyway. Nothing seems to work.

 

Does anyone have a trick or tip or technique to try on this operation?

 

Thanks in advance for your response.

[Marcarl]

You'll need to loosen the big nut on the center at the top of the tree, then both the lower and upper can swing to line up.

[MiCarl]

You'll need to loosen the big nut on the center at the top of the tree, then both the lower and upper can swing to line up.

 

That might help. It's also possible you tweaked the tree a bit and it'll be difficult to line up even with the center nut loose. It won't hurt to have the other fork loose in the tree as you try and get it together (you'll probably need a helper). If I recall correctly, my lower tree was twisted a bit after my crash. Fortunately it's rather soft and I was able to twist it back using one of the old fork tubes.

[Great White]

Everything must be loose from the stem nut forward when installing forks.

 

Once it's all together then you do the alignment:

 

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/tips-tech/tech-tip-front-fork-alignment

 

That's pretty much the procedure I use for alignment.

 

Assuming your track alignment (ie: front to rear wheel alignment) was good before it came apart, it should be good after it's all back together. Shafties tend to not run into track problems due to the architecture of the design.

 

I also tend to jack the rear wheel up to make lifting the front tire to the forks easier and slipping in the axle. Just be careful you don't go too high and round the tipping point to the front of the bike. It's pretty hard to do that on the center stand, but forewarned is forearmed......

[syscrusher]

 

Once it's all together then you do the alignment:

 

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/tips-tech/tech-tip-front-fork-alignment

 

 

 

Thanks for including that and for all of the other advice from everyone.

 

Something I did that I think could be good advice for someone else struggling with this is that I bought some one inch PVC pipe and cut about two feet off. This will thread into the fork to a depth of an inch and a half or so before the tube tapers inside. I cleaned the PVC real good so it wouldn't contaminate the fork first. With that in the tube I could get my very large flat blade screwdriver wedged between the PVC and the top pincher receiver. I had my younger brother beat the bottom from below through a wood block and the tube finally found it's way into the socket.

[Great White]

Just so you know, fork tubes should be able to be slid into the trees by hand.

 

"Beating" usually means something is bent or hasn't been loosened to allow assembly.

 

From your description (keeping in mind I'm on the other side of a computer screen and not looking at the bike) it sounds like something is bent.....

[syscrusher]

I'll be looking for it to track badly once it's all together but it looks alright so far.