Thanks for the video. It was very helpful for fixing my 2000 Kawasaki KL250G Super Sherpa. The electrical tape trick really worked! For anyone interested, the Super Sherpa required a 7/8 (or about 22mm) 'outer diameter' bolt. I tried using an impact wrench on the lower fork bolt and that didn't work.
tightening the two nuts together means that they are now coned. This is how you made the tool to loosen the internal nut, coned is a bicycling term from the 70's, when adjusting front or rear hubs 2 flat nuts tightened together forcing the axle to treat them as 1 unit. This practice has stopped. current hubs are held in place better- excellent film
Hey brother this was an amazing video. I never would've thought about doing something like this. Now when I'm in my garage everything is a potential tool to a degree of course. Thank you.
Thanks for the info, changing out seals on my 81 xj750 SECA and was wondering what to try, think I'll weld a nut to the end of some 3/4" rebar and make a T wrench, again, BIG THANKS !
It's usually easier to hit the damper rod bolt with the impact BEFORE you remove the fork cap. Spring pressure usually keeps damper rod from turning in my experience. Nonetheless, your homemade tool looks quite effective.
You can also weld a 5/8" nut to the end of a welded steel T. Sill have my tool from years ago. The problem now is an FZ6 fork. The tops of the dampers no longer have a nut socket in them. Why? Ask the jerks at Yamaha.
nicely done have done that to make a adapter for a tap that you can put on an extension to get to a manifold bolt, hope you still have your TDM 850 i love those trying to find one right now
And I should add the spark plug socket was flipped around and on the extension backwards, so that the hex shaped top portion would fit into and engage the specialty socket inside the fork. This is explained better in the video.
Why not just break the bolt loose (but not remove it all the way) prior to removing the fork spring and cap? The pressure from the spring with the fork cap still on should keep the damper rod in place and give you enough pressure to do a quick blip of an impact gun to break it loose. Then hand pressure on the spring and will keep it in place to remove it the rest of the way. That is of course after the leg has been drained unless you like cleaning up a mess! I have always used this method without fail on traditional forks.
@@ModernSurvivalists you're right, you do still need to make a special tool to correctly torque on installation. The advantage of removing without a special tool (as Aj suggests above) is that its often way easier to make said special tool when your holding the cartridge in your hand and can measure stuff. For example if you are making a castellated tool. You can't easily guess what tool to make by looking down the upper tube with a torch.
4:58 I tried some other methods but none worked for me. I had to buy the specialty tool and it still took two people. That damn bolt made my rebuild so much harder than it needed to be. Why cant they just put a normal hole in the damper that accepts a hex bit or SOMETHING, literally anything else... Put a damn bolt head with a hole for oil flow. Its not rocket appliances 🚀
Best video I have found for solving this problem. Worked, and now I can get my wife's bike back together before it warms up again.
Glad to hear it! Keep the rubber side down!
Genuinely one of the better videos on how to solve this problem.
Thanks for the video. It was very helpful for fixing my 2000 Kawasaki KL250G Super Sherpa. The electrical tape trick really worked! For anyone interested, the Super Sherpa required a 7/8 (or about 22mm) 'outer diameter' bolt. I tried using an impact wrench on the lower fork bolt and that didn't work.
Excellent video!
This is a six year old vid but if you see this, brother you just saved my bacon (if that’s even still a phrase)
Awesome, glad it helped!
tightening the two nuts together means that they are now coned. This is how you made the tool to loosen the internal nut, coned is a bicycling term from the 70's, when adjusting front or rear hubs 2 flat nuts tightened together forcing the axle to treat them as 1 unit. This practice has stopped. current hubs are held in place better- excellent film
Thank you. This was a big help. I was able to use the long bolt and nut from the rear swing arm to aide in my case.
Hey brother this was an amazing video. I never would've thought about doing something like this. Now when I'm in my garage everything is a potential tool to a degree of course. Thank you.
Thanks for the info, changing out seals on my 81 xj750 SECA and was wondering what to try, think I'll weld a nut to the end of some 3/4" rebar and make a T wrench, again, BIG THANKS !
Very useful video, thank you.
Very nice tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks!! Saludos desde Guatemala!!
Awesome tip!
Thanks! Great and simple idea!
Hey thanks , your vid was very helpful
perfect. thanks
It's usually easier to hit the damper rod bolt with the impact BEFORE you remove the fork cap. Spring pressure usually keeps damper rod from turning in my experience. Nonetheless, your homemade tool looks quite effective.
Good tip!
Good Gooooooood
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the feedback!
You can also weld a 5/8" nut to the end of a welded steel T. Sill have my tool from years ago.
The problem now is an FZ6 fork. The tops of the dampers no longer have a nut socket in them. Why? Ask the jerks at Yamaha.
Yep, that's a great way to do it if you have access to a welder. Thanks!
Do you have a solution to hold the damper rod in place? I'm not able to tighten the damper rod bolt on my 2010 yamaha WR125X.
You loose the bolt first before you remove the cap
nicely done have done that to make a adapter for a tap that you can put on an extension to get to a manifold bolt, hope you still have your
TDM 850 i love those trying to find one right now
I do! It's a great bike. I don't get it out on the road as much anymore as I would like though.
how would you know what bolt to use?
Thanks for video. What is the size of bolt you have taken?
I don't remember. It is probably different for different bikes as well.
you had the other one already pulled out, so you were able to match the bolt head size, but what is that size?
It was a 5/8" spark plug socket that I had used. Can't remember if it was a snug fit or not.
And I should add the spark plug socket was flipped around and on the extension backwards, so that the hex shaped top portion would fit into and engage the specialty socket inside the fork. This is explained better in the video.
Why not just break the bolt loose (but not remove it all the way) prior to removing the fork spring and cap? The pressure from the spring with the fork cap still on should keep the damper rod in place and give you enough pressure to do a quick blip of an impact gun to break it loose. Then hand pressure on the spring and will keep it in place to remove it the rest of the way. That is of course after the leg has been drained unless you like cleaning up a mess! I have always used this method without fail on traditional forks.
Thanks
Interesting approach. When re-assembling do you have any trouble getting it torqued back tight enough with this method?
@@ModernSurvivalists you're right, you do still need to make a special tool to correctly torque on installation. The advantage of removing without a special tool (as Aj suggests above) is that its often way easier to make said special tool when your holding the cartridge in your hand and can measure stuff. For example if you are making a castellated tool. You can't easily guess what tool to make by looking down the upper tube with a torch.
4:58 I tried some other methods but none worked for me. I had to buy the specialty tool and it still took two people. That damn bolt made my rebuild so much harder than it needed to be. Why cant they just put a normal hole in the damper that accepts a hex bit or SOMETHING, literally anything else... Put a damn bolt head with a hole for oil flow. Its not rocket appliances 🚀
do these methods work for most fork appllications make or models?
Most of the ones I have dealt with have been pretty similar.
an impact gun will get the allen screw out in one second.
Looks suspiciously like my front axle removal tool...
TERRIFIC!!!
What an absolute stupid pita design, so many forks have this exact same problem, how hard would it be to fix this?? SMH 😧
Very useful video, thank you.
Glad it was helpful, thanks for the feedback!