Fork maintenance failure

[not2shabby]

I agree your middle bushing did not wedge into the upper, nigh on impossible, and the upper should have come out with it... unless the seal was really stuck, but you can pry seals out. It is more likely the lower is jammed inside the middle bushing, and when you pounded it back down, the middle one missed expanding into it's seating area, now it's all jammed into the bottom. I still think it will all come out with the right method.
The lip where the middle bushing seats is not big, just enough to capture the bushing. The lip on the top side isn't very big either, maybe smaller than the lower I don't know, but it's there to keep the middle bushing from moving up and down inside the tube. Normally when you bring the lower up to hit it, the middle bushing should unseat with the slide hammer action, with a little bit of force, maybe a couple of tries.

Seems none of us can understand how the lower bushing came off the new tube.......

Well....it can happen! Go back and look at the pic in post 152. The middle bushing did wedge under the top one, causing it to deform.

 

[ionbeam]

....Seems none of us can understand how the lower bushing came off the new tube.......

Well....it can happen! Go back and look at the pic in post 152. The middle bushing did wedge under the top one, causing it to deform.

Direct link to post #152.

The picture that is associated with this post:

 

[Fred W]

This shows that (part of) the lower bushing got stuck under the middle one and the lower bushing looks squashed flat.

 

[not2shabby]

No, I'm pretty sure they're lined up from left to right; top, middle and lower bushing; left leg, right leg.

Edit: Fred, you're right. It's been a while so I checked a parts fiche to make sure and I had it back-assward, the big one is the bottom bushing so it had to get stuck under the middle one.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Everything went off to Traxxion last week. They contacted me today. Fork that was "Scratched" and unusable is reported to be fine.

China forks are screwed. If you've looked at that ebay ad, skip them.

The 2 replacement fork tubes you sent (these look aftermarket and not OEM) are not true – one is .013” out of round and the other is .008” out of round. Anything over .002” is considered bent. They have other quality isues besides that – the surface of where the inner bushing snaps on is offset compared to the fork tube surface by .006” and the chrome quality is not as good st the OEM.I would not recommend using these fork tubes.

So I guess we know why the lower bushing popped off.

 

[Niehart]

Damn, what a long journey... but looks light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Yep, pretty much missing the second riding season of the year. I'll electric up and ride through the winter and look forward to spring riding.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Geez, is this thing really 11 pages and counting? Time for another update in the saga.

First of all, DO NOT SCREW UP YOUR FORKS! Parts are NOT easy to come by.

Traxxion has everything needed to get my forks back together except one upper. I started my quest...looking online at the parts fiches we have been going over. Tried to order the less expensive fork upper from the newer parts fiches. Turns out, those fork uppers are on back order until the middle of January!!!

I looked and it seems in 2010 is where the parts fiche shows the difference in part numbers and the new number supersedes the old number. Ok, whatever. I am calling around and chatting with the guy at Stadium Yamaha and he confirms that there's none of the newer part number to be had till next year. Ugh. On a whim he looks up the old part number and there's ONE in the country. He can have it to me by December 6. He has me order it on their site and use my Black Friday coupon code which brings it to near what the new part number costs. Sweet.

If you've been in the $13 glove thread, you've seen about some of my shipping woes. Me and many others are finding that the combination of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the huge ice storm has caused serious shipping delays. One of my boxes I was waiting on took over a week to get to me and UPS had to use the USPS to get it the last leg from the Dallas distribution facility to me. So I wasn't surprised to find my fork tube delayed.

Well, it was in yesterday so I ran and picked it up and shipped it out to Traxxion. Now I'm just playing the waiting game on that and hopefully I'll be back up and running sometime in January. Down three months due to a stupid maintenance issue that should have been a one day deal. This has SUCKED!

On the positive note, looks like I may not need to invest in new winter gear this year after all. I'm going to miss most of it so I'll just use my old stuff.

 

[TomInPA]

What is the running tab on this fork "maintenance" rebuild. I shudder to think. This is where my Gen I forks seem really good, although it would be really sweet to have Traxxion do their magic.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Still far less than new forks. I've bought bushings and seals twice...just because I wanted to send brand new ones to Traxxion as I figured I did a good job screwing up the first set. Used fork lower, chinese junk uppers and a brand new upper plus whatever Traxxion charges.

I wish I was paying for the magic from Traxxion but alas, it's just standard maintenance stuff to get me back on the road.

The over/under on this DIY project is suffering but I'm definitely ahead of the game in the long run of my DIY maintenance. My recent car repair cost twice what it should have due to me/previous owner screwing up the O2 sensor, but still...$300 was way better than paying $1100 for the mechanic to do it. Not to mention the number of times I've checked motorcycle valve clearances and found them still in spec. That's a huge savings!

Of course, when I started all of this, it wasn't so much about the money rather than how much time I was looking at being down while waiting on someone else to do the work. I'm losing that battle for sure.

 

[Fred W]

I think I can now see what I'm going to do when I am retired.

"See a need and fill it."

 

[08FJR4ME]

I think I can now see what I'm going to do when I am retired.
"See a need and fill it."

Your home all day Fred, I thought your were retired.

 

[RadioHowie]

Fred, if I send you MY forks, how much to rebuild with new bushings, seals and oil?

 

[yamafitter]

Fred, if I send you MY forks, how much to rebuild with new bushings, seals and oil?

Give your forks to Tony who will run them up overnight to Owosso while on another Bum Burner. We will then get BikerGeek to redo your forks and then have Bust pee in your forks as an Owosso substitute for fork oil. In other words it will be a typical Owosso Tech Day.

Parts Cost......................... minimal

Entertainment Value......... priceless

 

[RadioHowie]

"BustPee" dissolves porcelain. Imagine what it would do to the brass and aluminum parts!!

 

[gixxerjasen]

I got more to post on this later, but for now you'll have to deal with just this.

Taken today.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

Fantastic! I am happy for you my friend. So sad that you missed out on so much riding time.

 

[HotRodZilla]

+1...Glad you're up and running!! You gonna try that **** again??

 

[gixxerjasen]

By the time it's due, I'll likely be stupid enough to do so. I do that with painting motorcycles. Swear it off for good, and several years later I forget and do it again.

FWIW, I still have to write them, but I'm semi peeved at Traxxion. I sent them all six bushings, they sent back two. I had sent them without internals and oil, just fix my screw up, get my bushings and seals in and I'll handle the rest of the reassembly.

They sent back my junk tubes, along with two bushings. When I moved the upper I could feel it click as it moved where the middle ones should be. I understand in our conversation here that they feel they aren't necessary, but if I sent six, I'd have expected someone to contact me and discuss it. I'll give it a go, and there's two bushings I may not have to order next time. Over all I'm pleased, I'm just surprised someone didn't see that and talk to me about it.

Took it for a quick spin this evening and then came back and cleaned up. My wife hasn't been pleased with the mess in the garage. We are those people who come and go through the garage rather than the front door. She's hated the mess. I realized today that I'd just gotten up and walked away the last time it went to ****. I've been avoiding it because it's like there's some psychological connection between the mess and that moment. Without some kind of resolution in play and feeling like I was getting somewhere, I just couldn't face it. I hate cleaning and organizing, but after my ride, I was cleaning and organizing with a huge grin on my face. It was like some kind of closure to clean all that up. Plus, wife is quite pleased.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

All's well that ends well.

If the "wife is quite pleased" then you should be entitled to a yard pass so you can go riding. One of the few valuable things I have learned in my 237 years of marriage is: Happy Wife = Happy Life.