Newbie does base valve mod

[wanaride]

I laid the bike on its side like everyone said to do. I cinched the wheel to the handlebars to compress the forks a little. I noticed that the fork was still slanting downwards, and I was afraid some oil would leak out if I took the BV out in that condition, so I propped up the front wheel on a small cooler.

With the fork angled so that the BV was pointing up, I used an impact wrench and 14mm hex bit ($16 from Amazon) on the BV, and guess what??

FORK OIL SHOT OUT ALL OVER THE WHEEL, BRAKE CALIPER, AND FLOOR. ALL of it came out. I'm sure I did a dumb ass thing somewhere along the way and caused this myself, but I read everything I could find on this subject. Of course, nothing is as easy or as hard as you hear it is. I forgot that.

It appears this has transformed from just a BV mod to an oil replacement too. (The forks were new.) I hope the KYB service sticky includes recommended fork oil weight and amount...

With the BV out I think I see what is meant by "peening"; it looks like the top of the shaft was flattened out so that the nut can't come up off the shaft from vibrations. (I'll post pics later after I clean up the oil.) Did you take a hand file across this peening and remove all of the "flattened" shaft material down to the nut??

[Indawoods]

Did you bleed the air pressure off?

Anyway... your half way there.....

[motorider200]

I shot fork oil everywhere on one of my forks too... I don't think there was any built up pressure in there and even if there was when I have bleed them in the past there never seems to be much build up in them. Not near enough to shoot out all the oil like it did. I wonder if it had to do something with the bladders that were in the forks at the time?

[scheckaet]

Did you take a hand file across this peening and remove all of the "flattened" shaft material down to the nut??

i used a file and slowly file it down. I would file a bit, turn the nut a bit, back it down, file some more and do it again and again till it was out. Do not force it too much or you'll ruin it. I think I did about 1/8 of a turn every time depending on how much resistance there was. The key for me was patience.
Good luck!

[IdahoCharley]

By compressing the front wheel prior to removing the BV you have placed air pressure on the oil in the lower fork leg. As you found out the pressure will release some oil when you remove the BV.

FWIW - using an impact gun means you do NOT have to compress the fork leg to stop the BV from spinning the internal cartridge assembly.

(Compressing the fork leg is to bind the BV/Cartridge assembly so that you can use a hand wrench to break the BV loose from the cartridge. Also very helpful when reassembling the forks to get the right torque value on the BV: First you screw in the BV and when it starts to reach the point where it should tighten down the cartridge starts to turn - This is the point where strapping the wheel to the TT or handlebars helps)

[IdahoCharley]

Concerning the "nut". File the top of the shaft enough to remove 90 - 95% of the peening.

Then loosen the nut 1/8 turn - then tighten the nut 1/8 turn - then loosen the nut 1/4 turn - then tighten 1/4 turn - then loosen 1/2 turn - then tighten 1/4 turn - then loosen 1/2 turn - then tighten 1/4 turn ....

Once you have one thread of the nut that has passed through any burrs from the peening of the BV stud, the nut should be able to come off. ( Its much like using a hand tapping tool where you turn the tap then back off to clear the threads and then attack the metal again.)

[krazyinski]

I laid the bike on its side like everyone said to do. I cinched the wheel to the handlebars to compress the forks a little. I noticed that the fork was still slanting downwards, and I was afraid some oil would leak out if I took the BV out in that condition, so I propped up the front wheel on a small cooler.

With the fork angled so that the BV was pointing up, I used an impact wrench and 14mm hex bit ($16 from Amazon) on the BV, and guess what??

FORK OIL SHOT OUT ALL OVER THE WHEEL, BRAKE CALIPER, AND FLOOR. ALL of it came out. I'm sure I did a dumb ass thing somewhere along the way and caused this myself, but I read everything I could find on this subject. Of course, nothing is as easy or as hard as you hear it is. I forgot that.

It appears this has transformed from just a BV mod to an oil replacement too. (The forks were new.) I hope the KYB service sticky includes recommended fork oil weight and amount...

With the BV out I think I see what is meant by "peening"; it looks like the top of the shaft was flattened out so that the nut can't come up off the shaft from vibrations. (I'll post pics later after I clean up the oil.) Did you take a hand file across this peening and remove all of the "flattened" shaft material down to the nut??

now thats a video I would like to see. keep up the work thats the only way to learn and good luck.