I'm having a bit of difficulty finding a "reassemble forks" reference.
Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be one on the wiki.
Anyone got a convenient link to a good web page or video for it?

(technically, my forks are now badly misaligned, not in pieces, after my incident, but I figure that's what I need to see to Do It Right)

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=25706.0

Quote from: Phil B on June 05, 2012, 07:44:03 AM
..................(technically, my forks are now badly misaligned, not in pieces, after my incident, but I figure that's what I need to see to Do It Right)

When a GS falls and lands on an end of the handlebars the weight of the bike slams up against the steering stop and it puts a nasty twist in the front fork assembly.  Raise the front end and loosen the tripple clamps grip on the tubes and loosen the fork brace too and see if it doesn't all just spring back in place without dissassembly.  It's worked many times here including on both my 97 and 02 GSs.

Quote from: gsJack on June 05, 2012, 08:21:18 AM

Quote from: Phil B on June 05, 2012, 07:44:03 AM
..................(technically, my forks are now badly misaligned, not in pieces, after my incident, but I figure that's what I need to see to Do It Right)

When a GS falls and lands on an end of the handlebars the weight of the bike slams up against the steering stop and it puts a nasty twist in the front fork assembly.  Raise the front end and loosen the tripple clamps grip on the tubes and loosen the fork brace too and see if it doesn't all just spring back in place without dissassembly.  It's worked many times here including on both my 97 and 02 GSs.

Thanks. makes me wonder if we need a "common fixups after a drop" page on the wiki?


skunkteeth: Thanks.. Doh.. it WAS linked from the wiki. Editing to make it stand out more to sleepyheads.

edit:  I took the cowl off.. and the extra metal frame bolt-on that holds the cowl and lamp... is bent over to face to the side a bit!
yikes. not feeling optimistic now

Here's a pic from above. It Not Look Good.

(edit: huh. bu.mp no like forum links. changing to tinypic)



Please notice that:


- the handlebar/top plate is straight
- the front mudguard ting is a bit off
- the front wheel is significantly more off
- the cowl-supporting frame is WAAY off


Can you give me more specifics on which nuts/bolts I need to loosen please, gsJack?
I losened the bottommost ones, but I'm now feeling cautious about which others to loosen. i dont want the things to suddenly SPROINNNG out or something

Loosen both bottom triple clamps and one top, the other top one will keep it from slipping down.  Had a twisted front end once and it didn't spring back until I loosened the fork brace too, all four bolts.  Those little allen heads can get hard to loosen on older bikes, always intended to replace them with hex heads but never got around to it.

Your pic won't open unless I copy the url and put in the address bar to open, that works.

That's a pretty good twist you got but it could all spring back, hope there are no bent parts.  My 02 front end was twisted like that when I bought it and it all sprang back OK.

Edit: Pic is open now.

My.. erm.. fork brace.. is wierd. (that's the thing on top of the mudguard?)
It already had two loose/missing bolts. Now it's COMPLETELY "loose" )

probably the reason fork alignment got so messed up is that it wasnt tight to begin with.
(those stupid things seem to turn and turn and never come out? whats up with that? plus reaaaly tightly threaded, arg!)

I think i need a new fork brace anyways.

Back to the wrench questions:  you mean to just loosen the bolts related to the 2 fork pole things right? never touch the center/frame mount stuff.




btw, updated the pic so it works.

The fork brace holds the front fender on.  The front end functional parts should be independent of the frame mounted bracing that holds the bodywork.  I'm no familiar with the F model bodywork, I have only had naked GSs.  Maybe someone else has an opinion on that.

Quote from: Phil B on June 05, 2012, 09:37:19 AM
My.. erm.. fork brace.. is wierd. (that's the thing on top of the mudguard?)
It already had two loose/missing bolts. Now it's COMPLETELY "loose" )

probably the reason fork alignment got so messed up is that it wasnt tight to begin with.
(those stupid things seem to turn and turn and never come out? whats up with that? plus reaaaly tightly threaded, arg!)

I think i need a new fork brace anyways.

Back to the wrench questions:  you mean to just loosen the bolts related to the 2 fork pole things right? never touch the center/frame mount stuff.




btw, updated the pic so it works.

See the above link on fork spring replacement. You need to remove the axle, then the front wheel. The fork brace is held on with nuts under the fender, so you need to take the wheel off to be able to hold the nut.

yeah, the "plastics" bit is independant.

back to the forks though

Im still nervous about messing with the "top" bit.

I loosened the two side bolt things. Those are regular socket wrench things, metric 14 I think it was?

But I'm worried about loosening what I THINK you're talking about: the allen wrench, metric #6 fastened things?

http://www.suzukipartsnation.com/pages/oemparts?aribrand=SUZ&gclid=CJbb8qPHt7ACFUoGRQodbQNh6A#/Suzuki/GS500F_(2007)/STEERING_STEM_(GS500F)/022980001/56022980056

part number 8, "bolt, stem head" ?

what Ive loosened so far, is number 3, "bolt, steering"

Ah, i see new post by skunkteeth.  gsJack, are you saying I should also take off the front wheel?  I didnt see you mention that.

Edit; I guess that's "only" if i want to remove the fender?  but it might help with the other stuff too, possibly.
Right now I have it on the centerstand. But I'll have to raise it more if I want to take the front wheel off?
The forum thread about fork spring replacement is a bit confusing, in that it doesnt mention centerstand much..
Ah, it says START with it on centerstand. This is all very confusing to a noob 

No need to take anything apart or remove anything, just loosen the twisted front end to see if it will all spring back into place.  Loosen both bottom clamp bolts 3 and one top clamp bolt 8 and the fork brace to see if it will spring back OK.  I did have to loosen the top stem bolt 11 once for it to all spring back.  Leave the stem bearing preload adjustment nut 6 alone.  Will only be necessary to take things apart if something is bent/broken and it doesn't spring back OK.

Hmmm... Update:

(havent loosened part #8 yet, btw)

I rotated the handlebars back up more to their "stock" position, and then experimented with full right/left turning.

turning forks left, it hits fork lock, at a seemingly appropriate place. or maybe a bit too soon.

Turning forks right, it turns much further, and allows the bars to travel over the tank.

Sooo... it's actually the "top bit" that has gotten misaligned somehow

Ah, wait I see it now...

The right fork tube has gotten bent.

!#$#@$!