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it has been a while but from what I recall. with xr400 springs and 12mm of preload my spacers were less than an inch. I really should write stuff down.

Kind of an obvious thing

If you are going to remove the forks

Loosen the caps before you take the forks off

Kinda PIA if you don't

DAMHIK

ok wait, i got schedule 40 pvc, 1 inch, and those spacers do not fit inside of the pvc pipe... hmmmm

I have the washer and the 1" PVC in my hand and it fits nicely.

you sure its 1"?

the ID of the 1"PVC is about 26.5mm........OD of the cupped part of the washer is 26mm. perfect fit. no forcing required.

wall thickness of PVC is 4mm OD is 33&1/2mm

are we workin with the same parts here?

I wish this thread was around last night.... I was trying to change the oil (it's been over a year) and I couldn't get those fork caps off, the spring kept pulling them back in! I didn't even think of putting pressure on the front tire to push the spring up. Doh! I said screw it and it sill seemed to work pretty good!

TopperHarley wrote:I have the washer and the 1" PVC in my hand and it fits nicely.

you sure its 1"?

the ID of the 1"PVC is about 26.5mm........OD of the cupped part of the washer is 26mm. perfect fit. no forcing required.

wall thickness of PVC is 4mm OD is 33&1/2mm

are we workin with the same parts here?

wtf. I'll go and measure tomorrow. I have a feeling i'm going to be doing this whole thing again lol.

Sigh.

Thank you for all your help! I really appreciate it!

youll get it figured out...im out till tomorow night. Riding at Wachita in the morning. Cheers

Cut something like this out of a piece of sheet metal to hold the spring down:



It stays in place better'n a wrench.


As to the original question..it's much easier to deal with 'a' fork than it is TWO forks. The latter is what you have with the forks in and the wheel on. Use a tie-down to cinch the forks after you get the caps off. Be careful with both the unthreading and threading of the cap to the tube. The fine threads of the aluminum cap are easy to mess up against the steel of the fork tube.

If you tighten the cap by turning the cap (as opposed to holding the cap and turning the tube) you will likely get scritchy/clicky noises from your forks. It is much eaiser to thread the two together correctly with the forks out of the clamps.

An oil change calls for setting an oil level. A lot easier to do that with the forks out.

An oil change generally involves a bit more than taking out the drain screw, draining, refilling with oil. How are you going to evacuate the cartridge? Having DONE that, how you are you going to get all the air out after you put new oil in. How are you going to run any cleaning solvent through the forks to clean the gunk out?

Spring change or oil change..fork removal is not necessary. The forks have to come out only if you want to do it right...with a whole lot less trouble, too. You will probably save the time taking the forks out that you spend messing with the forks IN the bike.


There isn't a spacer that fits inside the PVC..the PVC IS the spacer. Those flanged washers in your pic do fit inside the PVC.

Oh...what happens if the bottom spring seat doesn't come out with the spring in an on-the-bike fork spring swap? Must be fun gettin' that thing out!!

Oh...what happens if the bottom spring seat doesn't come out with the spring in an on-the-bike fork spring swap? Must be fun gettin' that thing out!!

one of those telescopic antennae things with a magnet at the end should work. if its long enough that is.

Or one of these things

Isn't that your Gerbil retriever?

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Indawoods wrote:Isn't that your Gerbil retriever?

this guy says he'll take two.

looks like i got 3/4 pvc pipe. How retarded am I.

Time to do it all again. Yay.

I kinda figured it was somthin like that. The 1" is clearly marked with 1"

and I thought i was eligible for rides on the short bus

make sure you cut the stuff straight. use a miter box and hack saw. Or a Miter saw if you have acess to one. be sure and remove all burrs with some fine sand paper. Cleanliness is oh sooo important when working on forks. Make sure you measure both sides. Spring lengths can differ slightly.

RE: Spring lengths can differ slightly.

An excellent point that belongs at the top of this thread.

Uh..you measure both sides to make sure you provide the same preload for each spring. That's clear, right? Your preload spacer will not be the same thickness if the spring lengths are different.


I mean...having gotten 3/4" pipe and all...I just wanted to maybe clear that up.

Re: Spring seat removal methods...

Yet another reason that taking the forks out in the first place may well be worth the time it takes to do it.

Oh...if you're cutting the spacers on a powered miter..back up the material you want to keep. Meaning...cut through TWO pieces of pipe at a time. The pipe closest to you will have a fairly clean edge because the saw immediately bites into the rear piece after getting through the front piece.

If you use only one piece of PVC, when the blade reaches the end of the cut, the cut piece will 'Z-I-N-G' off somewheres..and the trailing edge will have a goober on it. If you're cutting 5mm pieces, filing that goober is a little difficult.

My lame description of the process is..well..lame. Anyone that's cut finish wood on a powered miter uses that process all the time.

Well, except for those that actually us a GOOD blade when they do that sort of work.

Happy do-over!! You'll get a chance to try that new spring holder tool you made!!!

Guys, i know it sounds like it, but i'm no retard. HD or the customers before just must of put a 3/4 pipe in the 1" pipe and i was lucky enough to pick that one.

Replacing them took all of 10 minutes. Pop the bike up, loosen triple clamp bolts, take off handle bars, pop the top, new spacer in old spacer out done.

Incredibly simple process. Parts cut with miter saw. I use a 14 wrench under the 17 one and it works brilliantly. Thanks for that tip!

-Leo

Glad we could help get er done!...Not sure where your clickers were set for your oem springs but you may want to check them and start over from recomended # clicks out and go from there. I have had a problem with, what I beleive to be, some sort of Gremlins. Yup, the compression rebound Gremlins. Were Talkin SABATOOGE! They sneaks up on your KDX in the dark of night and messes with your clickers.
Or maybe its the guy on the Cr250, that he has tried to turn into a woods bike but still cant figure out how to shorten the wheel base, been messin with my suspension to slow me down.