Fork tear down

Does anybody know the trick to getting these apart?



Ive got the top bolt off and the spring out. I cant get the bolt that holds the piston in to come loose.

I've done others where the broom at a 45* angle trick worked but this piston doesnt have the hollow tapered center that allows that to work.

If I can't figure it out I will probably just drill the bolt out. I just need the pistons from these because the ones from the 77 650 I have are all rusty.

see www.kz-1000.net/forkdamper .

I seem to remember using a 1/2 inch bolt, but it was a while ago.

jakedude wrote: see www.kz-1000.net/forkdamper .

I seem to remember using a 1/2 inch bolt, but it was a while ago.

Thats what I started with but I quickly found out that instead of having a socket of some kind in there is has a part that sticks out requiring some kind of special socket.

Put the springs back in and top caps back on loose,Use an air ratchet or impact to loosen up the bottem bolts.

wireman wrote: Put the springs back in and top caps back on loose,Use an air ratchet or impact to loosen up the bottem bolts.

That's a great idea. i don't know why I didn't think of that my self. I will give that a try when I get home.

Using the springs/top caps/impact usually works great for tear-down but for re-assembly, I am pretty you will need the sharpened dowel jammed into the hole at the top of the cylinder....you will want a much shallower angle than 45 degrees on it though...a long, narrow taper will reach farther into the recess, and give you a better bite to resist the twist of the torque wrench. And ooooh! don't that old fork oil STINK?!!! Shoooooweeee!
edit: while you have them apart, look into polishing your fork lowers...kinda labor-intensive, but the bling is well worth the work!

They can go back together the same way with an impact.
Get the bolt handtight in the bottem of fork,then use the impact to finish them up.

Tried an impact gun with the spring and the top on and got no where...just spun. Even if I compressed the spring. I just gave up. After looking at the parts diagrams the tubes have different part numbers so I'm not even sure I would have been able to use them.

As far as polishing forks goes...It doesnt really fit the theme of my bike. My spoked wheels and forks are gloss black and I have gators on the forks...I love it.

Find somebody with a bigger compressor and impact, ive never seen one not come out that way.

Normally the air impact works, but if not, drilling the bolts is easy. I had one once that the allen bolt head just rounded off and was more or less just a round hole in the bolt. Surprising, drilling was easy as heck, just choose a big bit, bigger than the diameter of the bolt, which is probably 8mm, but not sure. Anyway, just drill in the nice round hole, then when the head is drilled off it will fall right off, the forks come apart, and the threaded portion of the bolt comes right out easily with your fingers, or course unless loctite is on the bolt. Don't use loctite on fork bolts, ever,

I'm not sure about those particular forks but on my 750 forks I was able to hold the damping rod using a spark plug socket, the type with the hex on the outside, inserted upside down into a long extension. The hex pattern matched that on the damping rod, so it was an easy matter to hold the rod stationary while removing the screw on the bottom. Worth a try anyway...