Need help with CL350 fork disassembly...

kayakguy

New Member
So I have a '72 CL350 that I am turning into a cafe. I took the headlight ears off and found that the tubes were badly pitted. No problem I also have a '73 for a future project and those tubes are in good shape, I was gonna replace the seals anyway so I will just swap them out.

Or will I...

I took the Allen bolts out of the '72 forks and pulled the tubes right out of the lowers. No problem.

Now the '73 I broke the allen bolts free but they just spin. I know I am probably missing something. I figured the forks were the same but the '72 also has some sort of rod in the springs, maybe an emulator? I am not sure as I am not smart enough to get them apart.

So the gist is the allen bolt at the bottom of the forks is turning and I am unsure how to lock up the internals to allow me to actually get it out.

Thanks, I am a mechancal idiot.
 
Just drill them out and order new allen bolts and crush washers from Bike Bandit. Only a couple bucks, and you'll save yourself time and frustration. I had the same thing happen on my last 550.
 
You are not an idiot. (Well, maybe you are, but I can't tell from this.) :D

It is a very common problem for the damper tubes to rotate when trying to remove the damper rod screw at the bottom of the forks. You have to have the springs in the fork tubes and the caps on top to have the springs under pressure. This will usually keep the damper rods from turning, but not always.

I have an air impact wrench that I use to remove that screw. The sudden rotation caused by each whapp of the wrench makes the screw turn a little each time before the rod can start turning.
 
The right tool sure helps.

This also demonstrates how linear the human mind can be. I build log homes for a living and I used to use impact wrenches to dive lag screws. I have literally thousands of hours using impacts, and yet it never occured to me to use one in this application.

You live and learn!
 
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