Front Spring Box Removal
- Thread starter youngjohn
- Start date
Hello John, An old friend, the Late Roger Haylett from the Midlands, Put a bit in MPH a long time ago. It depends how much time you want to spend making It, But I love It. You need 19" of 10mm stud with 4 nuts, two bits of 1 1/4" angle iron 2 1/4" long and 1/8" thick + putting 2 small threaded holes and a small plate. If you want to do it send me an e/mail bill.thomas@fsmail.net Cheers Bill.
Dave Hills (I think) did an article in MPH years ago on building a tool for removing and replacing the front spring boxes. I made one and it works a treat. It compresses the spring and holds the springbox together while you remove and replace it. The article must be listed somewhere.
Cheers, John
Cheers, John
easy enough to remove-reverse put bottom bolt in make a rope loop to put foot in, bear down + replece top bolt. not easy but works for me.
One way to make the job easier is to take the two nuts holding the damper eyebolts off, thus allowing the forks to extend further when you put the bike on the front stands.
Try tying a bowline arround the top bolt and using the axle as a windlase, easer and safer than a loop .
norm.
norm.
Yep
Twisted rope (1/4+ nylon) is the way
my only mod is to loop round bottom bolt secure loop round top with cable tie and wind up with suitable thin bar do this with spring box at aprox 45 deg from final position dont need to go mad with windlass just swing spring box up to see if it aligns with bolt hole as you swing up it tightens swing back and wind a bit more and swing again. get it right and you can pop in bolt with fingers cut cable tie undo reef knot and do other side
Twisted rope (1/4+ nylon) is the way
my only mod is to loop round bottom bolt secure loop round top with cable tie and wind up with suitable thin bar do this with spring box at aprox 45 deg from final position dont need to go mad with windlass just swing spring box up to see if it aligns with bolt hole as you swing up it tightens swing back and wind a bit more and swing again. get it right and you can pop in bolt with fingers cut cable tie undo reef knot and do other side
Agreed. I've done it half a dozen times. Important to make sure it can't slip off. And not to re-use the rope if there is an sign of fraying.
To remove the front spring boxes I start by putting the bike on the rear stand. I then take a tie down (I do not have any ratcheting ones, but that would be better) and attaching one hook to the brake lever pivot on the brake backing plate. I use the much mentioned nylon rope on the top of the spring box and I make a very short loop that I hook the other end of the tie down to. I cinch it as tight as I can which should be tight enough to easily turn the bolt to the eccentric. I then jack up the front end by putting a small jack under the front of the engine. I cock the front end to the opposite side, if you are working on the left spring turn to the right. I undo the top bolt all the way while holding the outer spring box. When the bolt is out take both hands and slowly lower the spring box so it is parallel with the floor. As the box lowers the tension caused by the spring diminishes until it is fully relaxed. At this point, you can see that if you reverse the process and lever the spring box back up that you can slip the bolt in and reassemble. If the bolt is not lined up just lower the box and shorten or lengthen the tie down until you have good alignment. I have never had a mishap, but all of the caveats mentioned in these posts should be noted. To do the other side I just lower the bike to compress the remaining spring and jack it up again. There is up to 150 pounds of preload on each spring box, so be careful.
David
David