Help with Spring spacers?

[soccerspawn]

I've got the F headlight attached naked, but it's banging the front fender at full compression.  I got the nylon cylinder to compress the springs and hopefully take a little movement out at full compression but I damn near stripped the fork cover caps trying to compress them and get the cap back on.  How the hell do people get that cap back on with the higher compression?  I had 3 guys helping me and couldn't do it with even a one inch spacer.  Am I missing something? The bike was on a center stand with no weight on the front tire.
Help!

[Janx101]

reckon this needs more info ... progressive or sonic or other?.. what rating? ... is the spring all the way in where its sposed to be? ... with the spacer sitting on top of the spring where is the end of the spacer in relation to the end of fork tube? .. are the tubes really fully extended or caught up on something?

but apart from that... naked F headlight .. yeah ok i can understand that concept... but bangin the front fender?!... how low have you got it mounted?...

i got a mechanic to do my springs the other day cos i was lazy, lacked correct tools and space and had the money to pay for it... but even with the old springs... full compression.. even the fairing surrounding the headlight on my F comes NOWHERE near hitting the fender!!! .. several inches of room!!

i know it makes sense that the new stronger springs need more compression pressure... but in all the fork threads ive seen on here and elsewhere it was never a 4 man job that still missed!? ...

theres gotta be something not it its proper spot! ...

this is gonna sound super stupid... and im not having a go at you... but... the old springs were removed first yeah?... you didnt just add the new ones on top? ... only reason i say that is......................................... 'many moons ago a young man decided to convert his station wagon from auto to manual! (stick) .. he took the old auto out and started to slide the nice manual box in... then remembered to slide the brass bush on the tip of the front shaft of the box... but forgot to check that the old brass bush (that was left waaaaaaaay down in the hole where the front shaft had to go) was actually removed, because if it was still there the new gearbox would not touch the mount plate by 3/4" !!!!!!!!... he pushed and strained and cursed and swore and started looking for an axe to kill the whole car with!!... then after an hour of sulking decided to pull the box away and check WTF was happening!! ... he found the old bush!!.. extracted it with a suitable tool (a big long heavy threaded bolt converted to a crude slide hammer) .. and the box mounted up 'slicker than owl shaZam!!' .. he was finished soon after ... the end' .....

i've still got that feckin brass bush too!!!.. it reminds me to measure twice and cut once!! 

[soccerspawn]

Geez ya I guess I deserve a noob check question like that.  The issue is, I am trying to compress the stock springs with a small spacer as I think is the idea here... http://gstwin.com/making_fork_spacers.htm unless I am mistaken.  Looking at this again I see he has described a " Loosen the upper fork tube pinch bolt. (Allen)" step.  Can't say I remembered seeing that but I will look again next time I'm out working on the bike.  Could that pinch bolt play a factor or do I need to stop being cheap and buy progressives...  Just seemed like a cool idea to compress stock.  The F headlight sits about 5 inches or so above the fender, but there is definitely that much play in the stock springs with a 190 guy stopping firmly or going over a speed bump.  I spoke to the guy that did the write up on F headlight conversion and he thinks I can do a better job with moving the headlight up further, but it's tough because the gauge pod blocks it from going higher.

Thoughts anyone?

[codajastal]

i've still got that feckin brass bush too!!!.. it reminds me to measure twice and cut once!! 

LMFAO

[adidasguy]

Basically changing springs "in situ" or on the bike, with Sonic or Progressive or RaceTech springs are this:

1. Forks must be extended. That means all weight off of the front wheel.
2. Remove fork caps. Careful - they will pop off at the last twist.
3. Remove old spacers and springs.
4. You can now compress the forks: push front wheel up as much as possible
5. You can now suck out some old oil if you wish and put in some new oil
6. Oil level is measured with forks compressed. Generally in the area of 130-140 mm from top of fork tube
7. Extend forks
8. Put in new springs and a washer or whatever came with your springs
9. Drop in spacer. mark spacer at the level of the top of the fork tube or up to 1" longer. The fork cap will give the required pre-load if spacer cut at top of fork tube: i.e. about 1.5"
10. Add a washer on top of spacer, usually there should be one
11. CAREFULLY push fork cap back on. Use your palm/. Press straight and turn slowly. Very easy to cross-thread the fork cap.
11. Tighten down the fork cap so it is very snug. No need for body builder strength. There is an o-ring on the cap to hold it in and seal properly.

Now go ride.

[soccerspawn]

Thanks for your help guys.  The fix was....  Bought progressive springs and add a bit of preload to those.  MUCH easier that trying to add preload to the stock springs.  I think that should be taken off the sticky as a modification as I damn near crossthread my caps AND then nearly lost an eye when it came out.

ANYWAYS.... Progressives are in, did a 1.5 inch preload ( I weigh 200LBS ) and now I have just the right amount of spring AND my naked F headlight doesn't hit the front fender.  Last on my list is to paint the head pipes and she's ready for my first riding season.  Thanks everyone for all your help I will be sure to get some pics up.