Seperating fork uppers from lowers

[haggisbasher]

Evening all

I decided to strip the forks on my GS750L this evening and all went well they came out the trees very easily and the caps came off without any trouble. the oil was pretty black and gunky so worth the effort so far. I used my impact gun and the damper bolt came out without the use of any special tools, major bonus although I still have to figure out a way to get it all back together.

I have it stripped as far as I can but I can't seem to get the uppers out of the lowers. There seems to be a pretty good lip on the uppers as when I pull them out to their linit they stop with a pretty solid thump. The manual only suggests clamping the lowers in a vice and pulling but I was wondering if theres a trick I might be missing? Does it take a lot of force or should they come out pretty easily.

Thanks

Tom

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Here's a silly question. Did you take out the clip holding the seal in place?



There's a guide on my website written by Matchless that goes through the complete disassembly.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[haggisbasher]

Hi Cliff

I followed the guide and I did remove the clip but there seems to be differences between my forks and those in the tutorial. The manuals seems to indicate that the seal can only be re-installed with the upper already in place as there seems to be some kind of sleeve on the bottom of the upper. The manual describes it as lower metal?

[81ZUKI75]

My experience on my 81 and 82...YMMV.

1. Upper Retainer clip out, check
2. Damper Bolt out, check (yes, the impact wrench avoids much drama)
3. Mount Lower section in Vise (with cushioning )
4. Grasp the upper section firmly with both hands
5. Make sure there is nothing of value behind you
6. Insert upper a few inches into the lower and SNATCH back..

Good Luck.

[haggisbasher]

ok cool so its a brute force issue, my special area of expertise.

Can I ask how you held the damper rod when reassembling. The tutorial shows the end of the damper rod with essentially a 12 point socket appearance but mine are smooth and round. I dont see any way to prevent it turning when I rebuild unless I just jam something tight fitting into the end.

Thanks
Tom

[hampshirehog]

Just use a broom handle to stop the damper rod spinning. Once you start to get tight it should stop spinning on its own.

[haggisbasher]

Great stuff

Brute force successful so I now have a nice pile of bits to clean up. Apart from gunky oil everything seems to be in good order so I will get new seals and put it all back together.

Many thanks

Tom