Front Fork Problem

D

dave48

Junior member
Location
Missouri USA
My 1000 has been sitting for some years. The front forks are locked-up. I assume at the upper seal. Has anybody had this problem or does anybody know a good way to fix this? I?ve put a tie-down strap from each side of the handle bars through the wheel and it won?t break free.
 
Sounds like the damping rod has corroded on to the inner tube.
You could try removing the dust seal, and trying to spray some penetrant down past the fork seals.
Or take the fork top caps off and fill the forks with penetrant after first draining out the oil.
I would only use force as a last resort.
 
Not uncommon to have the damping bushes swell and jam inside the stanchion.  Very often also the main cause for stiff fork action.

If left standing for a long period with contaminated oil, there's no end of funny things going to happen... don't see the seals being the culprit, they just fall apart as soon as they are forced to move after any length of time.

piet
 
Sorry for the ambiguous question. Some solvents will cause rubber parts to expand to several times their original size and you can never get them apart. Does penetrating oil include any solvents like that?
 
The forks are seized solid.
Penetrating oil should help free them up.
I think over-thinking what it will do to the rubber parts is fruitless.
Just soak the forks as best you can.
Swollen rubber will not seize the forks any more than they already are, if indeed they would cause them to seize in the first place.
If you don't feel confident then take them to somewhere that will free them for you.
 
Dellortoman said:
It probably has Viagra in it (to aid penetration). That would make soft things swell up.
Click to expand...

:D :D If the R was an N and you were good at Scrable ...............

I had a Volvo truck that had worn bushes in the cab mounts, they sqeeked in mercy every time I went over a bump, and the lateral movement in the cab near made me sea sick. Volvo has a rubber grease, a good dose of that on the bushes and a few thousand Klms later .......... cab felt more stable and the squeek disapeared.
 
Dave I doubt if penetrating oil will make any difference. I think the only way is going to involve a hammer and drift.
            Dave
 
Hi Dave,
Same thing happened to me.
I totally agree with Grant.
I also had to hammer them out in the end.
The alloy collar also needed slow and careful sanding down to slide smoothly once out.
I used around 800 grit wet or dry sandpaper with kerosene from memory.
Good luck.
 
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