5 Gen Fork Installation

[Duc2V4]

Being that a few folks here were contemplating removing, servicing and installing their front forks and were wondering how to raise the front end to do it, I figured I'd show how I did it this morning. In my case, I was just swapping out a pair of modified forks for the stock ones, sorry no how-to on the flush/fill of the fork itself.

First, having a covered workspace, AKA garage, and preferably one with ceiling rafters/studs, is a start. I bought some "swing" hooks from Home Depot and put them into the ceiling studs in may garage. I went with the "swing" hooks as they had a weight rating, I thought it was like 200lbs. each, but whatever works I guess. I use a ratcheting tie down to loop underneath the frame just behind the triple clams and just ratchet the strap and up comes the front end.

For removing the front wheel you'll need, a 22mm socket (for axle nut), 10mm socket for brake line brackets and "delay" valve, 4mm 5mm (correction) hex for fender bolts, and a 12mm socket for right brake caliper and axle pinch bolts and a 6mm hex wrench for the left brake caliper. For the forks, you'll need a 12mm socket (clip-on bolt), a 14mm socket (lower triple clamp bolt) and a 6mm hex wrench (upper triple clamp bolt) to do the job. Undoing the forks, after removing the front fender and wheel, is fairly straight forward. Loosen the three bolts that hold the fork in place; clip-on, upper triple clamp bolt, lower triple clamp bolt and remove the cir-clip at the top edge of the fork. Be careful, when you loosen the bolts, if you loosen them all a little too much, the forks just falls straight to the floor. You can always leave the cir-clip on until you're ready to pull the fork, this way if you do loosen them all a bit too much the fork won't fall out, it'll stop at the top of the clip-on. The rest is gravy as they say.

Here's the swing hooks. These are screwed into the two parallel studs that follow the drywall seam to right of the photo, so these are 16" on center apart.

I put a shop rag around the strap to prevent the strap from getting cut/frayed and to keep dirt/grease off of on it.

Top view of straps in place. Although the straps are in front of the clip-on bolts, you can easily move the strap to access them.

Here's how much lift I get with the rear wheel still on the bike.

If you leave the front cowl on, the left lower (lower right when facing the bike) triple clamp bolt is some what assessable.

However the lower right (lower left when facing the bike) bolt is blocked by the front brake line. Removing the brake line support bracket bolt allows you to maneuver the line out of the way to allow a socket to be used to loosen/tighten the bolt. Here's a couple of shots of the bolt and brake line while in the way.

A simple way to ensure the forks go back in with the same amount above the triple clamps, I made this little gauge out of a piece of thin cardboard. Here I was holding pressure on the card while pushing the fork upward, as soon as that little bend in the card was straight, I was at the same height as before.

[CHUCK2]

Awesome! Thanks again, Duc!!

[IntAceptor]

Bike on the center stand and wifey or someone pressing down on the tail hauls the bike high enough to put a block and some wood under the engine. It will keep the bike high enough and stable enough to do any of the work on the front end you have to do.

Not dissin' your strap method but if you are in a hurry, the jack and chock method works too.

[zoomzoom]

Thanks for the great write up Duc. I love reading How-To posts, if for any other reason than to see how others do stuff on their bikes. You never know when you'll see an idea that makes your life so much easier when it comes time to do something to your own bike.

If perchance you don't have a garage or at least if no way to support the bike from the rafter or roof of the garage, shed, etc. you could also try using the support brace method. When I was doing some detailing, metal polishing and powder coating work on my last bike (a 97 VFR750) I made some braced frames out of wood that I had lying around in the garage. Since I was renting the house at the time, I did not want to add any extraneous holes in the ceiling, and thus I built the side frames to support the bike while I removed the front end of the bike.

At the time there were a few things I wished to do over the winter like powder coat the wheels, fork seals, steering stem bearings, brakes pads and the addition of heli bars. Not all required having the bike supported but it did make life a lot easier.

The sides of the a-frame are made from 5 ft long 2x3's, and the base was 4ft wide x 3ft long (front to back). The cross tube that was bearing the weight of the bike was a thick wall steel tube that I found in the metal recycling bin at work. I drilled the holes in the 2x3's just large enough to accomodate the bar and then when I made the frame and overlapped the 2x3's the side braces twisted just enough that they locked the bar in place. Once there was weight on the bar there was no chance of moving it either. It was easy enough to remove the brace at the front of the bike when I went to reinstall the the forks and the front wheel. If you don'r have a steel bar kicking around, I'm sure a 2x4 on edge would have worked just fine in place of the bar. I would be tempted to screw a 2x4 to the top of the brace frames though as compared to screwing it in between though in the interest of making sure the weight of the bike bears on the frame and not the screws.

To hold the bike up I used a couple of cam buckle style tie down straps and looped them around the support bar and then around the sides of the frame. I made sure that the buckles were facing outwards and not touching the frame so as not to scratch anything. Once raised in the air the bike was very secure and not the least bit tippy. Another thing that came in handy is that the bar was useful to tie up the stock clip-ons so they were not dangling, and to tie a support strap around the brake calipers so that they were not hanging from the brake lines. Be sure to place the bike on the center stand so that it is more secure once you lift the front wheel off the ground. If you find you need a bit more clearance you can also remove the rear wheel so that the front can be lifted a bit higher. The pictures show that the tank is also off the bike but I would imagine that the bike could be supported in this manner just by wrapping a tie down strap around behind the bottom triple clamps so that you don't need to remove the upper cowl, as shown in Duc's pictures. I was doing other work to the bike at the time and thus pretty much everything was removed at the time. One thing led to another, and another, and another. Sometimes winter in Canada gives us lots of time to think, and think, and think, and when it comes to adding farkles, that can lead to a lot of extra bits being removed. LOL

Edited November 24, 2013 by zoomzoom

[Duc2V4]

Not dissin' your strap method but if you are in a hurry, the jack and chock method works too.

No worries, all ideas are welcomed IMO. I like this method because I can do it alone and there's nothing to take up floor space in the garage. I have a single car garage with 4 vehicles and a plethora of goodies that need to get crammed in there, so floor space is at a premium. I also found it a lot more difficult to knock the bike over. ZoomZoom's idea above is a take on "hanging" the bike from above, albeit lower to the ground and looks simple enough to build, another good option.

[vfrAustin]

Ok, now to take things to another extreme. Just put a VTR front end on, triples and all, with the below method of support. Not advised, see the 5/8ths dowel in the picture?