gold valve compression valve body

[Luis]

Hi all

I am in the process of installing a new racetech gold valve kit (compression and rebound valves). I am having a hell of a time removing the compression valve out of the cartridge. I am using a vise onto the brass but on top. And a 19mm open wrench into the OEM valve body. I have heated the cartridge, the valve, tapped the valve... Nothing works... Any other tricks to break loose the loctite? I am following

Scoobyvroom's how to to the letter but nothing...

Any help there?

Cheers

 

[Fred W]

Lefty Loosey?

On a serious note, what are you heating with the torch? You want to try to heat the cartridge bottom, (not the valve itself), to get some space in there. I do not remember the valves being that hard to remove from the cartridge on my '05, and I didn't even use any heat.

Good Luck.

 

[Luis]

Fred

I am trying the bottom of the cartridge itself but nothing! Damn... I am out of bloody ideas!

 

[ULEWZ]

Lay it flat on the concrete, place a wrench or channel locks on the brass part, and place an open end on the compression valve. Leave the wrench about 2 inches from the concrete and whack the wrench with a dead blow mallet. Worked for me, but I also used a propane torch to heat the locktite.

Sometimes you need to have the wrench on the brass part hard stopped against the concrete so rotating the other end will have the tendency to rotate the wrench on the brass into the concrete creating a hard stop. Also, I sometimes use a breaker bar on the compression valve wrench end, to help with leverage. I hope this is clear.

Video chat maybe? I am here all week.

 

[Luis]

*****...nothing... I may try tomorrow w an open wrench 24mm? For the brass but and a deep socket for the valve so I can put my impact wrench...

 

[Luis]

Thanks all for your help. All disassembled. Re-shimming pistons this week and hopefully putting things back together. Second fork was easy and straight forward.

Luis

 

[Mr_Canoehead]

May be too late to help but I did this over Christmas - it came apart easily after heating it enough to melt the red loctite. Heat until it smokes. I used a heat gun but a propane torch would also work.

As a heads up, one of my Racetech rebound valves wasn't properly threaded and would only go around 4 threads on the tube before stopping. I ended up running an M10x1.25 tap in to get it cleaned out after which it went properly. Racetech did offer to send a replacement but I didn't want to wait.

Also, getting the rebound valves back into the cartridge was a bear because the new seal is difficult to keep compressed while the valve is installed (kind of like installing a piston without a ring compressor). I fought with the first one for a while before hitting on the solution of using a 0.003" feeler gauge to keep the seal compressed while inserting it into the tube. The second one was very easy using this technique.

 

[Luis]

Thanks mate! All in. Forks installed. Still on the stand but feels good. Waiting for the better weather to set up the sag and fine tune compression and rebound. The center stand is on a dolly and won't come off til the better weather draws near. Right now expecting a blizzard!

Thanks for your input. I agree, you have to heat that sucker until it smokes!

Luis