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Drill Drill Drill

Posted August 12th, 2013 at 12:50 PM by Lychee

So... You know those Harbor Freight extended hex keys tools on the ninja 250 faq? yea make sure you buy the one that does not have a ball on the end! I did and it stripped the allen on the first quarter turn!!! ()&*%#@@@!@$^&*!!!

Rewind...
Yesterday after many delays I finally suspended my 250 by its swing arm and its triple tree and removed the handle bars, brake, and front wheel. Yay for tie wraps being great parts holders. Then I used an adjustable clamping wrench at the axle end of the fork and rotated the fork until the wrench contacted the triple tree stand. Bam! Instant vertical vise! The bike is very stable on the stands, I am not sure why people need to use a vise for this. Fairing removal was not necessary except for the two little lips that divert air into the radiator. Once those were removed there is plenty of room to work. I ran into some trouble with the starboard side damper rod bolt when the brand new Harbor Freight tool stripped the bolt head on the first quarter turn. I kicked myself for believing the ball end keys would work instead of going for the straight keys. Left that side alone and went to the port side fork. Used my old allens and a wrench as a breaker bar and it popped loose immediately. Easy. Dumped the fork oil, cut the spacer, cleaned everything up, put in fork oil and in go the internals. Luckily I have predrilled ninja 300 damper rods that are exactly the same as the 250's damper rods. Old technology, but still works. Left the spacer out, popped the cap in as a contaminant shield and installed the fork. Popped the cap off again, installed the spacer, compressed everything and on goes the cap. The snap ring I installed previously really helped here. Set fork height to 0.25" and after the handlebars were reattached, this side was done!

Now to tackle the harbor freight mess. These guys have such poor quality control on their tools. The price really shows this quality. You really have to make a cost-benefit decision every time you buy a tool from them. Made the wrong decision this time, thinking I could use the angle from the ball end for other applications. I have this broken fastener remover drill bit set from Craftsmen. Really good tools. Also really short bits! Forget it. I got out the drill bit and proceeded to carefully destroy the fastener forever. I did notice that the bolt is the same as the one that comes out of the handlebar. And oh! some spares from lowering the front end lady's 250 (parts bike) are conveniently available. This WAS supposed to be a 2 hour job.

Fast forward to 30 minutes past 2 hours.
Lots of colorful words. Drill Drill drill. cuss cuss cuss. Dayam this sucks. Finally this little shower of shavings comes out. I think I am through! Out comes the bolt removers and reverseeeeee. Bink bink bink.... That looks like a bolt head. Yes! Damper rod is clearly loose now. Out comes the fork. Oh I forgot, this was the second time it came out because I popped out already before drilling and removed all the oil and then popped it back into my vertical vise. OK there is metal everywhere. If I want any sort of reliability I am going to have to separate the fork and really spray on the brake cleaner. Where's my putty knife? Ok so I took out the dust seal and slide hammered the fork seal out. Sprayed brake cleaner on everything and it is really shiny now. OK greased the seal, now... how do you put the seal back in? I think it was recessed quite a bit... Aww dammit. OK so I drove in the seal using a zip tie as a chisel and my $40 kawasaki pregen ninja 250 special valve tool as a driver. I knew that tool was a good buy. Have yet to adjust the valves with it though. I digress. Eventually I had to use a screwdriver to push the seal down far enough. What a pain in the ass! Almost as much as drilling out the bolt. Eventually it goes in and finally I can get back to upgrading instead of repairing.

Settings: I used 120 mm of 15W fork oil this time with my new .75 sonic springs. I used the blue 40 pounds/in valve emulator spring set to 3 turns of preload.The cap sits above the fork when it is fully extended about half an inch. When I put the cap on the recession of the cap should add another half inch of preload to the main spring.

The wheel was kinda tough to put on for some reason. It didn't want to free spin after the axle bolt was torqued. The brake wasn't attached yet. Hmm. I wonder. Found out after test riding and everything that the fork oil level is supposed to be measured with the emulators in. Aww dammit. I probably have 110 mm of oil or so. Going to have to get back in there this week. It is a little too stiff right now. What the hell is wrong with the wheel.
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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    Lychee's Avatar
    Took another look at the forks on Friday. After I pulled out the springs I checked the air gap and there was about 130mm. Odd. What the measurements don't say is if the air gap is measured with springs that are totally clean of oil. I am fairly certain that the oil still on the spring when I pulled it out would account for the loss. So therefore for consistency the springs need to be sprayed down with brake cleaner every time the air gap is measured.

    I also looked at the front wheel again. You have to torque the axle before tightening the fork mounts. That way the forks line up right and no pressure is on the axle. The front wheel spins freely now.
    Posted August 18th, 2013 at 03:40 PM by Lychee Lychee is offline

 

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