Morning,

Day-off today - time to replace a leaky old fork seal! Loosened off all the bolts ready to remove the wheel and as per the guidance here and on youtube, went to slacken the fork caps...nothing...solid...trying to round itself off.

However, the US models, or all the tutorial ones, look to have a different arrangement, one where a 1/2" ratchet just slots in, mine are 19mm with some sort of 10mm adjuster in them? Any ideas how these are to be removed?



looks like this, 10mm adjuster turns freely up and down (with a spanner), 19mm bolt stuck? Should it just turn out and I'm being too wimpy? the RHS one wants to round off and I see they are just €92 (!) new each.

Also, are they interchangeable should I mangle one trying to remove it? I assume that adjuster does something important?

cheers,
toby

I'm pretty sure those are not stock caps. The stock GS does not have adjustable forks. Looks like you might have some kind of aftermarket cartridge emulator or pretensioner. It's possible whoever installed those may have cross-threaded them which is very easy to do if you are not careful. If that's the case you might wind up replacing them.

Anyway, don't try remove them using the center pre-load adjuster. Stick with the 19mm outside head.

hi pliskin,

The euro parts catalogue does show these as being a Suzuki part, not sure if its just a Euro or UK thing but I believe they are stock? I did find a post on here earlier about them (back in '08) but I've lost it... opinion was that it was some sort of preload adjuster and mostly useless...

When it stops raining I'll go out and take another look, I was under the impression these shouldn't be too tightly done up, barely over finger tight?

They are standard on my 99ex.

Yes they are stock but they are not useless, well maybe with the stock sukuki springs but with good after market springs they are far from useless. I think they are from around 1998.
Have you undone the bolts on the top triple clap that hold the fork? They should come loose with out too much trouble.
Here is what i do with mine. Unscrew the adjuster (10mm bolt at top) all the way out for least pre load. jack the bike from under the zorst to take the weight of the front wheel. Then using a 19mm spark plug socket (extended socket) unscrew the bolt.
I think maybe your too wimpy lol Its time to man up
Cant you just hook the seals out with one of those seal pullers or carefully pry them out with a small blunt instrument? I dont think you need to dismantle the entire fork. Isnt there a circlip and a spacer holding them in?
Oh, I forgot about the new oil. Stupid me.

Before you touch those types of caps which are usually made of aluminum, you have to have the upper triple pinch bolts loose and you may need to loosen the lowers and push the legs up 2-3 " so your wrench doesn't snag on the bars etc and tighten lower triple only back down.
If there is something gripping the outer part near the threads, it will not allow the caps to loosen.
Cool.
Buddha.

Ah cool, I'd loosened the bolts down a touch but nipped them back up to stop the fork trying to turn. I'll give Buddha's suggestion a go and push the thing up an inch or two, I've already unbolted the handle bars so shouldn't be too traumatic to do.

The dust seal is also a bit past it so its definitely a full strip down, no idea how old or what the oil is either.

Those top caps looked like the least problematic bit! Looks like its brightening up a bit so I'll hopefully give it a go this afternoon.

Cheers for suggestions!

toby

One off, other still stuck...

Loads of plusgas and then a load of hot water, fork as high up in the clamp as could go and a lot of force on a 18" torque wrench did the first one, grudgingly. The nut isn't in a particularly good shape now... Never mind. Getting that lower bolt loose is a pain so enlisting some help to hold the other end of the threaded rod tool... I can't help thinking at some point someone has really had a good go at this with an pneumatic gun...

anyway, thanks for the pointers, aluminium bolts definitely 3/10...

toby

If by the lower nut you mean the allen bolt in the bottom of the fork leg, then you need to weld a 24mm nut to a length of rod or all thread. If you use all thread you can use two 24mm nuts locked together. Stick the rod in a vice and slide the fork tube over the nut. Then you will need a rattle gun to remove the lower allen bolt.
Those top fork caps dont need to be super tight, so when you get around to putting them back together don't over tighten them.
I hope you can make sense of my waffle.
Johno

Made a right mess of it...

The leaky one I needed to fix is all put back together, someone to hold the threaded rod tool whilst I put an allan key on the lower bolt was what was needed, once that was done it was plain sailing.

Alas, the other leg which is needed to get into to have a look over its fork oil, that nut was going nowhere.

So I rounded it off. 0/10.

I have no idea why its so stuck (or why these bolts are aluminium!) but I'll try and drive 3 long bolts into the unit and use a length of steel or wood to wrench it free. at least that'll preserve the rest of the fork and I can then look at getting some caps (the other side isn't particularly good either) at some point. Until then looks like a breaker job for some new forks to get the thing mobile again, a few goodish looking ebay units are around so pending queries on the state of their top bolts i'll look to replace. I can't think those caps, given they have an o-ring and about half an inch of thread need to be much more than snug given the spring holds them under tension?

Thanks again all for pointers, really miserable about it

Really sorry to hear things didnt go well for you pal. Can you take the fork to an engineer and have them remove it for you?
As for the caps, any of the later model caps will fit but they don't have the pre load adjustment. Im' sure someone on the forum would have some, or you could try local bike wreckers.
All the best,
        Johno

As Buddah pointed out you need to undo the pinch bolt. I have seen "trained" mechanics do the same thing. Easy to forget to undo the clamp bolts. Luckily for me I started working on forks when the caps were still all steel, or I wouild have rounded a few.
If they are already stuffed then a bit of heat will work but don't use if you are going to reuse the caps as you will mely the rubber "o" ring if it is there. Oh and take the fork OUT of the clamp to apply the heat and DON"T put the forkleg in a vice! Heat it and reclamp with the cap area clear of the triple clamp ( ie sticking above the top clamp by about 3 inches.)

Took the thing over to an uncle who does a bit of machining. Anyway, after some big Stillsons failed to remove the cap driving two lengths of steel in, brazing them to a copper pipe over the adjuster and then putting a lot of leverage back on the Stillson it came free. So just a gas torch and some big tools required The other nut screws into it so i'm happy no significant damage was done to the fork tube.



Once I got resistance on it and posted the first time, I did the actual rounding off with it a good 6" above its normal position with only the lower clamp on, I can only assume it was rotted in place, no evidence of threadlok or anything either.

Now its back to finding the 2nd hand adjustable (or anything) fork caps. I assume they are next to the chicken teeth... a few eBay places have aftermarket ones that allegedly are common between latest 80s Honda CBR600s (amongst others) and GS500s - looks about right according to the tube sizes here but I have my doubts as to fitment.

Waiting on a few breakers to see what's available.

Whoo... I just looked 'em up OEM... $35 each... (for my '98 which just has regular flat ones) http://www.motosport.com/motorcycle/oem-parts/suzuki/1998/gs500e/front-damper

At least you know you can get them if needed.

I was thinking about stopping at my dad's garage and getting my box of extra fork parts sometime this weekend maybe... cuz I see a fork rebuild in my future... I can see if I have fork caps and let you know... if you're interested, tobyd!

Hey ShowBizWolf - if you could that would be great!

I've left a post with the guy breaking an '04 to see if those are still available but it seems a real shame to break up a good set of fork legs that someone might need for more than a botched repair.

I'm amazed that there aren't loads of these from accident damaged 500s where the forks would be the first thing to break, and spares would be plentiful? $35 isn't so bad, the same part number but ended D60 (the adjustable style) are the only ones I can see specified in the UK and Europe (and Australia I think) and those are 100 of anyone's currency - its way cheaper to import them from Aus due to the exchange rate...

Or you can find a generic set on Ebay for $32 for both.

You'll have to modify them a bit, as I did.  But if your uncle has a lathe, it'll be much neater than the job I did.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=70732.msg851132#msg851132

I did see these but I wasn't sure exactly how compatible they would be - I'd guess the 'Honda' 37mm OD will match and the thread pitch is probably identical but after that I suppose its anyone's guess? £25 delivered isn't so bad for the equivalent of £180 of parts but I'd hate to wait a month for them to appear and be completely useless (and be £25 down!).

I think I'd rather have the simple caps and replace the spacer tube than have an adjuster - I can see that makes no sense from a manufacturers perspective though.

The threads are crossed, common problem with any used bike. Someone in the past will have ragged them back in. Maybe even hammered home. It may even be the reason they sold the bike. Even if you do get it off its extremely unlikely it will go back on leaving you in an even bigger world of pain.

Are you really considering buying a set in Australia and having them shipped over???

Try this......


http://motorcyclepartsfinder.co.uk/SUZUKI_GS500_parts.html

I'm not sure the threads were crossed, I was expecting that but the otherside's cap threads into the 'bad' tube no problems. The only odd thing I noticed was a sliver of thread missing from the very middle of the alu cap, the rest of its threads were in surprisingly good order...under the melted o-ring anyway... I get the feeling someone in the past has had a good go at it with an impact gun. Anyway, both tubes are now rebuilt with new oil and dust seals and waiting some caps which I think are now sorted! I only managed to get about 500ml of fork oil out, I was expecting a fair bit more, seen 377cm3 mentioned around and about so was expecting closer to a litre? Then again since one leg was leaky and the other was a rascal its hardly a surprise. Consolation is that now it can be filled correctly with fresh and the caps installed a little more sympathetically.

For new parts outside the US the pricing seems to be the same in everyone's currency - so at a smidge under 1:2 GBP vs AUD it's pushing half as expensive to import them from Aus. The US seems to have much better pricing on new OEM bits. I've tried a number of UK breakers, only one lot got back to me saying they've already sold the bike they were breaking.