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Author Topic: wierd front fork problem  (Read 1130 times)

xylene61

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wierd front fork problem
« on: June 08, 2009, 02:03:08 pm »
I went on a ride for CF on Saturday. One of the guys we rode with , just before the ride, blew a fork seal, so we thought. Another one of our friends doubled up with her husband and gave her sporty to our buddy to do the ride. Nice of her!

We had the bike ramp-trucked to my shop, after the ride, as he lives about two hours away, and on Saturday nite, proceeded to swap out the blown fork seals.
The bike is a 2003 Heritage softail with fatboy tins & cowbells. The oil was pissing all down the lower leg, so we ripped off the tins, only to discover the fork leg had unscrewed form the upper tree, and the clamp bolt in the lower tree was snapped offf clean.

Any ideas what the hell happened? We never could figure out how the fork leg could unscrew, unless the lower clamp bolt was loose. The break on the bolt looked fresh, not like it had broken, then the fork unscrewed. I had a spare clamp bolt, I was able to get the busted bolt out, and we swapped the seals anyway, as we had another guy run parts for us while we were doing the ride.

Imagine if he had decided to do the ride anyway, with a blown seal! OUCH!
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Lightnin

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Re: wierd front fork problem
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2009, 07:07:37 pm »
i suggest you go back through the entire front end first before it gets ridden!!!

the top of the tube unscrewed and the pinch bolt snapped...

both of these mean that there is a lot of vibration or play going on in that leg..... either that or nobody ever tightened it back up the last it was apart

now what causes this type of vibration?..... loose bushings ,bolts not tightened, excess play in the leg itself,

there are only so many things that can affect the play in the leg.... walk through it and inspect them all one at a time for wear and tear and replace when out of spec....

 on my front end i replace bushings when they look worn..... and if i'm lookin at them, its already apart so no big deal
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Dave

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Re: wierd front fork problem
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2009, 09:42:52 am »
i'm thinking the bolt on the lower was broken when installed & it wasnt tight , but took a bit to breal all the way off.. i cant even imagine how or why a fork would spin in the tree that much to unscrew the cap.. but if the bottom bolt was not there it probably acted like an impact driver every time he hit a bump loosening the cap slowly.. i cant believe the guy couldnt feel it steering poorly..
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xylene61

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Re: wierd front fork problem
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2009, 01:43:45 pm »
I went through the front end thoroughly, bushings were in very good shape, seals were like new, but we swapped 'em anyway. fork tubes weren't scratched...I think the bike only has 20k miles on it.

The bolt head was still in there, just sitting in the hole loose. If it was previously busted, it would have fallen out, and upon inspection, it looked like a FRESH break, nice & clean bright grey...I was lucky to get the bottom of the broken bolt out without removing the trees...

My suspicions lead me to believe the bolt was probably snug, not tight, but loose enough to let the fork tube unscrew. The bolt may not have broken if there was no tension on it after the fork unscrewed.

He rode it home Saturday nite, and I never any bad news, so I guess he's happy....I'll follow up with him this week.

I wish my batteries were good, then i would have taken pictures...
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Dave

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Re: wierd front fork problem
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2009, 10:07:49 am »
well as we well know strange shit happens with these machines.. we live.. we learn.. it had to be a fluke happening.. probably never happen again .. just one of those things i guess.. at least its fixed..
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