Triple clamp crooked after fork rebuild

[jcyuhn]

Howdy all. I'm not finding any discussion of this topic using search and it's not Friday, so here goes... I recently had the forks rebuilt on my 2006. Upon reassembly the top triple clamp is slightly askew when riding straight. It was fine before the rebuild. I've owned the bike from new and it's never been crashed or dropped. The rebuilder (Traxxion) did not note any issues with the forks. So I am assuming the mechanicals are fine and we have a problem with the mechanic.

Any tips or techniques the mechanic (me!) can use to get things better aligned? I assembled it with the top triple clamp snug, everything else loose, plunge the front end, and then torque the fasteners from the top down. It's close, but not quite perfect.

The bike rides great, it's like having a new motorcycle.

 

[PapaUtah]

I am assuming it points a tad left or right when you are describing "askew." Did you remove the upper and lower triple clamps? If so, loosen the top clamp bolts and have someone hold the front wheel and you give the bars a little push to the side you want to correct to and retighten. If that's not enough you may need to loosen the top nut while you are at it and then retighten.

 

[BanjoBoy]

Make sure the forks are even, (Above the top of the triple clamp.) loosen the lower bolts on triple clamp, loosen pinch bolts on the axle, and push up 'n down real hard on the front end. snug up axle pinch bolts (Per manual.) 'n snug up lower triple clamp bolt. Now yer ready to rock 'n roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Hb9ABpyts

 

[jcyuhn]

Thanks guys. Yup, askew is just a fancy pants word for crooked. I serviced the steering head bearings while the forks were out, so the triple clamps were completely off the bike. I'll try loosening everything and starting over.

So the official sequence is to tighten the top triple clamp bolts, plunge the front end, then tighten the axle pinch bolts and finally the lower triple clamp? When does the big axle bolt get torqued?

 

[1911]

my $.02 worth as far as sequence.

steering head spanner properly set/torqued (bearing preload). upper triple clamp fork pinch bolts and steering stem nut finger tight. tighten lower triple clamp fork pinch bolts. tighten axle pinch bolts and end bolt (a mult-istep process for my ocd self). now loosen the axle pinch bolts opposite the axle end bolt. bounce the front end. tighten axle pinch bolts. tighten steering stem nut just enough to make sure the upper clamp is fully seated against the spanner. tighten upper fork tube pinch bolts. fully tighten steering stem nut.

 

[jcyuhn]

Got it fixed. I went with something along the lines of the BanjoBoy method. Put the front end in the air and loosened everything. Tightened the upper triple clamp bolts. Did the spin the tire and grab the brake thing. Lowered the front end and exercised it up and down a bit. Then tightened the axle clamp bolts followed by the lower triple bolts. Finally torqued the big 22mm axle nut and tightened up the fender bolts. It's either perfect or so close that I am imagining any crookedness. Gonna ride for a while and see.

The 1911 method above sounds like the ST1300 procedure I found described on twtex. Apparently if you don't use that alternating axle clamp/axle nut procedure, you get a pull. Never heard of tightening the upper triple stem nut last though.

 

[mcatrophy]

...Then tightened the axle clamp bolts followed by the lower triple bolts. Finally torqued the big 22mm axle nut and tightened up the fender bolts....

The workshop manual says to tighten the axle nut before torquing the pinch bolts. Doing it in "your" order, I can imaging a scenario where the axle isn't fully seated, the pinch bolts are tightened, then torquing the axle nut pulls the axle through the pinched fork, pulling the two forks together a bit.

I've never particularly liked doing it in the manual's order where the left-hand pinch bolts pull the split fork end together against the resistance of the tightened axle nut, however, better that than the alternative I've described above.

The relevant page (from the UK 2013 FJR1300AS manual)

(Click on image for full-sized view)

 

[BanjoBoy]

Got it fixed. I went with something along the lines of the BanjoBoy method. Put the front end in the air and loosened everything. Tightened the upper triple clamp bolts. Did the spin the tire and grab the brake thing. Lowered the front end and exercised it up and down a bit. Then tightened the axle clamp bolts followed by the lower triple bolts. Finally torqued the big 22mm axle nut and tightened up the fender bolts. It's either perfect or so close that I am imagining any crookedness. Gonna ride for a while and see. The 1911 method above sounds like the ST1300 procedure I found described on twtex. Apparently if you don't use that alternating axle clamp/axle nut procedure, you get a pull. Never heard of tightening the upper triple stem nut last though.

Didn't know you replaced steering head bearings. I always torque the steering head first, (Per the manual.) then do the rest of the procedure. I also like to slide the forks as high as I can get 'em the triple clamp, in an effort to get this pig to turn.

 

[jcyuhn]

Just cleaned and greased steering head bearings, no need to replace anything this time around. It would never occur to me not to fully assemble and torque the steering head and upper triple clamp before installing the forks/wheel/etc. The upper and lower triple rotate independently of one another so no reason to leave anything loose while aligning the front end.

I've got the forks at factory height. Not much difference between factory and slid all the way up on the FJR, there's only a few mm before the rebound adjusters hit the handlebars.

Thanks for your help.

 

[thewrenchbender]

^^having been in there recently-but not really keeping track-I am not seeing how the lower tree and the upper clamp can rotate indepently once the upper stem nut is torqued.

I stuck in the axle, snugged the upper stem nut, torqued the upper and lower clamps. Torqued the stem nut, loosened the lower clamps and re-torqued them.

Seems to me I usually end up with a very slight gap between the RH lower leg and the axle spacer. Doesn't feel right when I jam the lower against the spacer. YMMV.

 

[jcyuhn]

There's no keyway or other mechanical system locking the upper triple to the stem. So when you torque the stem nut all you are doing is clamping the upper triple against the upper bearing. You've got some friction from the stem nut against the surface of the upper triple, but I found it was reasonably easy to separately rotate the upper and lower triple by hand.