T’other day I found out the Bjorge oil fill method don’t always work! The seal just failed whilst under pressure and once leaking there was no way the pressure was going to be enough to budge the seal. I was in a hurry to fix one fork leg, did not have the time or money for new bushes so dug the seal out using a mixture of butchery and good fortune to get my bike bacon the road without dismantling the forks and destroying the lower Teflon bush…….Shirley theres a better way.
Of course if you are totally rebuilding your forks and know the bushes are shot then you may as well whack them to shreds with the Haynes method.
On to a different set of forks to test on…..the forks to dismantle had bushes with less than 1000miles on them. And since the bushes are so bloomin expensive it would be nice to retrieve them without chiselling the snot out of the Teflon using the Haynes/Workshop slide hammer type method, which I have NEVER been able to use and successfully save the Teflon lower bush.
The reason that the Haynes/Workshop method destroys the Teflon bush is because the upper bush is slotted and as it is knocked from its location it spreads more and allows the Teflon lower bush to slide underneath plus the shock of the slide hammer method and difficulty in pulling totally straight don’t help….well that’s my theory anyway.
Here’s how it went:
Remove all the guts, springs, damper rod, damper etc.. Parts of this are shown in the pootube clip. If in doubt ask ear on Carpe. It is ferry important you ain’t trying to pull the forks apart with the seal locating clip still in place or with the damper still attached to the fork lower…..that would NOT be good!
The next thing was to find safe places on the fork to pull on without causing any damage and without bending anything! The lower point was easy…..use the spindle hole. But the upper end was a tad trickier. I wanted something that could be easily recreated without the need for some jazzy fabricated/welded bracketry.
Loike dis:
fork_pull.JPG 73.99KB
67 downloadsRemove the preload adjust section from the centre of the top bolt. Shove a decent grade bolt through the now empty centre. You will need a washer at the bottom to pull against and to protect the top bolt from damage, especially if you don’t have a spare!!!
Locating the bottom of the fork was easy peasy. Drill a hole in a plank of wood and whop a graded bolt through it with a washer to protect the spindle hole. You could also make a bush to protect the spindle hole.
Then extend the fork fully and drill another two holes to mount a bar/box section for the top bolt puller to go through.
Like dis:
teflon_save2.JPG 69.34KB
61 downloadsI used box section for strength. The box section is spaced away from the plank so that the fork is free to “float” from the plank. Don’t want the pull to be uneven or any bending force at all. The hole drilled through the box section is to locate the puller.
So once your fork torture device is completed you can locate the fork.
teflon_save3.JPG 40.31KB
64 downloadsLocate the puller bolt through the box section, put a washer on and start ratshitting.
teflon_save4.JPG 57.44KB
53 downloadsOnce the play is taken out of the setup and/or the seal starts moving you will either need to add washers or relocate the fork bottom (or both).
teflon_save5.JPG 80.24KB
45 downloadsHopefully you get as lucky as I did:
THAT’S THE BADGER
teflon_save6.JPG 52.26KB
58 downloadsA 2 plank method would eliminate problems of the bolt moving in the plank but would require longer bolts and a lille more work
