forks

[givergas]

ok, rear wheel assembly is done on to the forks. took one off and took apart could not get the allen nut to come out of the bottom. had it all together when i tried used a impact driver would not come out. decided to leave together as i was looking for water or rust but the oil came out pretty clean from the drain hole. replaced the seal and o ring in the fork outer nut and the dust seal. but if the other fork needs to come apart what am i missing or doing wrong? thanks again...albert

[olddogs]

Did it just spin or is it stuck?

[givergas]

stuck

[olddogs]

Only ran into this once. I just drilled into the allen bolt increasing in size until I reached the size of the threaded portion. You can then slide the lower tube off and deal with the stud that will be left sticking out of the damper rod. Lots of options

[Dale]

I recently fought this battle on both legs of a set of 34mm forks off of a 250SL. Both allen bolts were frozen to the point where tools were bending under torque. I was able to break them free using heat from an electric heat gun. Not just a little heat and have it come loose, but repeated heating and cooling periods over a number of days. When each finally came loose it was as though they had never been stuck... I assumed that I was fighting corrosion when I started the process, but I think it was probably over zealous use of Locktite or a similar product. Someone used red rather than blue???

The biggest difference is that the 34mm forks have an internal nut that you can hold with a special tool whereas the 30mm forks do not. That just means the 30mm forks will need to be assembled (and possibly compressed) in order to unscrew the allen bolt, once the bolt spins.

I will add that my forks internals were badly corroded and also stuck in place. I soaked them in solvent and then cleaned them several times with soap and water. After that, repeated soaking in Evaporust and oxalic acid. They fought a good battle, but I eventually won.

Hope this helps,
Dale