Trying to replace leaking right fork seal (2018 MT-07) any advice would help

[myfootisdumb]

hello i'm trying to replace my right fork seal because its leaking but i'm only having difficulty.. any advice would be appreciated.

Took off the right fork off the bike.. with the fork assembled, I tried to undo the bottom bolt of the fork... it was hard to turn by hand with a hex key spinning the dampening rod on the inside of the fork... online said try to zip the bolt off with a impact gun because fast brute force will separate these bolts.. went to a local auto place and they tried because i didn't have a gun.. now the bolt spins very freely with the inside rod still spinning with the bolt... tried to wedge anything i could inside the fork to hold the dampening rod.. got things stuck but got those out... so next i'm just going to drill out the bolt.. its an 8MM bolt but I've never drilled out a bolt before.. I bought a 17/64 bit which is equivalent to 8MM but maybe I should go smaller? Going to try to fix this before just buying an entire new fork.. Ive learned my lesson never doing wheelies ever again because this is a PITA.

 

-Evan

[Rider360]

You don’t have to take that bolt off to change the seals.

[ElGonzales]

Hi,

i was successfull with such an simple aluminum tube with a locking plier (or grip plier, don't know how you call it) to hold the dampening rod inside the fork in place. It had more friction inside the damper then I had ever expected

Press it inside the dampening rod and you can loose / tighten the bottom bolt to the torque it needs.

 

It would be even better to own the special tool for this. But in times of need, the devil eats flies.

Have you tried to insert the spring again, close the upper lid and compress the fork leg? This will also block the dampening rod  with friction and you can work better on the half loose bolt.  I assume you have bad luck and a lot of Loctite on your bolt. Perhaps heat can help to remove it completely without drilling, but I don't know what kind of Loctite Yamaha uses and what temperature you have to reach.

 

[Triple Jim]

Just now, ElGonzales said:

But in times of need, the devil eats flies.

That's a good one that I hadn't heard before.  

[myfootisdumb]

Just now, Rider360 said:

You don’t have to take that bolt off to change the seals.

hmm.. I am doing exactly what they are doing in this video to change the seals..

 

 

but my bottom bolt just spins, the one in this video where he uses an impact gun.

[myfootisdumb]

Just now, ElGonzales said:

Hi,

i was successfull with such an simple aluminum tube with a locking plier (or grip plier, don't know how you call it) to hold the dampening rod inside the fork in place. It had more friction inside the damper then I had ever expected

Press it inside the dampening rod and you can loose / tighten the bottom bolt to the torque it needs.

 

It would be even better to own the special tool for this. But in times of need, the devil eats flies.

Have you tried to insert the spring again, close the upper lid and compress the fork leg? This will also block the dampening rod  with friction and you can work better on the half loose bolt.  I assume you have bad luck and a lot of Loctite on your bolt. Perhaps heat can help to remove it completely without drilling, but I don't know what kind of Loctite Yamaha uses and what temperature you have to reach.

 

Just shoved every rod I could find down the fork tube, I have lots of stuff that will fit but nothing that will grasp the damper rod so it won't spin when i loosen the bolt. 

 

The shop did just that compress it with all the guts in the fork and tried to zip it off.. if there is threads on the bottom of the fork they are stripped probably now, which even if I do drill out the bolt id have to rethread the fork.. yeah i here that manufactures put locktite on the bolt.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

 

[Evill_Ed]

Just now, ElGonzales said:

Hi,

i was successfull with such an simple aluminum tube with a locking plier (or grip plier, don't know how you call it) to hold the dampening rod inside the fork in place. It had more friction inside the damper then I had ever expected
 

Press it inside the dampening rod and you can loose / tighten the bottom bolt to the torque it nee

I have also had success like this. Once with a length of 1/2 PVC conduit, I had tapped it into the dampening rod with a mallet to wedge it in and then clamped a vise grip on the end to hold it. 

On the FZ I used several 1/2-in extensions with a socket that wedge fit itself into the damper rod. Like ElGonzales said, it grips better than you might expect.

Ed

[union]

Just now, myfootisdumb said:

hmm.. I am doing exactly what they are doing in this video to change the seals..

 

 

but my bottom bolt just spins, the one in this video where he uses an impact gun.

Ya um no.  You can disassemble the forks that way but it is not how we would do it at the shop.  It's fine to hit that bolt on the bottom with an impact but we would do it after the cap, spring and oil are already out.  When you remove the cap you need to keep a little downward pressure on it to keep it from getting launched since this is a damper rod fork.  A vice and some v-blocks are super helpful with this.  At this point you can hit the bottom bolt with an impact.  You may need to pull a little bit on the inner tube or side load it a bit to keep the bolt and damper rod just from spinning.  Once the bolt is out pull off the dust wiper then snap ring.  Then you can slide hammer the inner and outer apart.  The seal and the bushings should come out with the inner tube.  I would also plan to replace the bushings at this time too.  Some times they can be reused with no issue but others either the Teflon coating is worn too much or they kind of destroy themselves in the disassembly process.  Its one of those luck of the draw things.  When I did cartridges on my 0 mile bike they had to get replaced.

[myfootisdumb]

Well after 4 hours, started to slam the fork on the ground with a wooden broom handle(tried metal, and rubber 8 different sticks, I was very very rough with it.. surprised somethings not broken, but was able to put enough pressure to stop the dampening rod from spinning.

 

thanks everyone.