Well, I'm stumped (was "Tonight in the garage")

I still have sticky forks on the YZ.

The forks seem straight; they measure a smidgin under 145mm
apart regardless of what I rotate to what angle. The wheel spindle
seems straight enough, measured with an engineer's straight edge.

I tried Platypus's glass trick; I wasn't too sure about it because I
thought that the forging flash on the yokes might be uneven, but it
certainly seemed square enough with barely a hint of wobble.

I did notice that the forks seem relatively free when just resting on
wood; as soon as the wheel is fitted (even without tightening it all
up) then they get stickier.

As an experiment, I took the wheel out, refitted the spindle, then
rested the spindle in a piece of wood, so the weight was taken on the
spindle. Again, the forks stiffened.

In fact, it now seems that they are just incredibly sensitive to side
loads; If I push down on the handlebars then all's reasonably OK, but
pushing down and sideways on the bottom of the upper tubes, they
stick.

Bugger, bugger, bugger. I feel a full fork rebuild coming on.

 

Bent internal damper rod ? or internals in wrong, worn slide bushes ?



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Worn slide bushes is a possibility, though these were supposedly
replaced a couple of years ago - things did improve after that but the
forks have never been what I'd call really smooth.

Not sure about damper rods; firstly, how would they get bent, and
secondly, they're relatively thin and I'd have thought that they
wouldn't be that sensitive to side loads on the forks themselves,
anyway. Still, it's an idea...

I suppose I could just find out if a pair of forks off a later YZ will
fit and simply replace them.

 

It's a job I particularly hate. They're always buggers to get apart,
usually requiring the fabrication of special tools, and the fucking
oil goes *everywhere*. Last time I had a man in to do it.

 

Yep. If the forks are straight. Then worn (and subsequently twisted
out of place) slide bushes are your most likely candidate. It happened
on my old KDX250 years ago. They were sticking for a week or two, then
finally in a race, I landed a big jump and the forks compressed to the
max and stuck there. End of race.

--
Alex
BMW R1150GS
DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8
http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk
Windy's "little soldier"

 

Erk. Bet that didn't do the steering geometry any favours - a couple
of years back I managed (I think) to dial in some pumpdown - possibly
not helped by the stiction - and in the next session out the bike went
into a *massive* tankslapper. Needless to say, I promptly reset
everything back to its defaults!

 

<chompette>
Look, I was 19 years old at the time. I could barely afford to put petrol
in the thing, let alone pay for spare parts. Besides, at that age, it is
the law.

--
Alex
BMW R1150GS
DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8
http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk
Windy's "little soldier"

 

It has been know for garages to change the fork oil by loosening the
holding bolt for the damper and then filling them back up through the
drain plug with a large syringe rather then disassemble the forks.

I had a set of forks re built for me, which is unusual as I do all my
own work but time was at a limit, and after a few weeks of hearing a
strange tapping sound I found a welding rod in one. I have no idea why
it was there or what they where doing with it but it was in the fork
leg all the same.





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That's the idea isn't it, how else are you going to see if it will
break



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meant to say, check the bolt inside the fork leg bottom that holds the
damper in place, make sure it's not lose.



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Ooh err! Perhaps they were using it to check the oil level?

 

Oh, I dunno, my Clymer BoL says that it's the depth that's important.
I can sort of see that: the volume of trapped air affects the
effective overall spring rate (in fact, my YZ has little bleed screws
to equalise the pressure to ambient before using the bike), and if the
old oil didn't all drain out during an an oil change, especially if
unevenly between the legs, then maybe that could give rise to
"issues".

 

<cough>
I used to clear a sticky valve on my FZR like that.

 

heh. Mine dew, the last time I did that, when coolant was vanishing
out of said FZR and I thought "it'll be all right", it highsided on
its own coolant and spat me off.

 

yep , put 300cl in one leg and 400cl in the other and see what happens



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Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Alex Ferrier

A set of forks on your bike got fully compressed and stayed there?

How odd. I can't *imagine* what could have caused that.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

<Thinks>

The bike had been previously owned by Timo?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

Well, that could dovetail with my "Pie Theory".

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Right, I've dicked with them enough. They do need a special tool,
different to the one I made up for my old FZR, and I don't have the
specs for making one.

I'll pay someone to replace the sliders and check that the internals
are straight.

 

Heh, last time I was in that situation I was coming home from Cornwall in a
very rusty Honda Civic.

"Can you hear that squeaking noise" says SWMBO

"Erm yes" says I, turning up the radio to drown out the noise.

Upshot was that the car expired in Launceston [1] with a fucked water pump.
We came home on the train from Plymouth.

[1] Unfortunately it was a Sunday, and Launceston is shut on Sundays.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R (Going)
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)