Can't contain myself !

[OZZYSBIKES]

Do you ever end up spitting feathers while working on the bikes ? It doesn't happen often, I am usually in my little corner of heaven in the garage working on the bikes with a pot o tea and classic rock on the radio but spending the morning stripping the 550 forks nearly drove me over the edge ! All due to the po loctiting the damper rod bolt in ! I've seen some stuff but that's a new one  !

[mike the bike]

No point in loctiting in, it's never going to fall out.

[Tomb]

I've come across it where the PO has used thread seal where a new or annealed copper washer would have worked better

[Bryanj]

Honda did similar from new

[OZZYSBIKES]

Honda did similar from new

Really ? I have been working on bikes for 52 years and I have never seen it before, it made it a bastard of a job to stop the damper rod spinning while trying to undo the bolt, I managed in the end with an aluminium rod down the fork leg to stop the damper spinning while using an impact wrench to undo the bolt

[Bryanj]

Exactly why I bought a 3/8 drive windy gun and long allen keys to fit, plus always undid that screw before even removing fork. All the one I took out at Meads had something on the threads on all the Japanese makes.

[OZZYSBIKES]

Strange, I must have just got the bikes that have been assembled on a Friday afternoon ?

[SPR]

I've just done mine for new seals and luckily loosened them before removing the forks .... they were definitely put in with some sort of thread lock and an absolute pain to loosen

Simon

[Spitfire]

Mine were the same had to insert a socket put the nut back on, put the leg in a vise and compress the spring against a wall.

Cheers

Dennis

[OZZYSBIKES]

Well I am amazed that I haven't seen it before in my 52 years of repairing bikes for myself and as an employee in two bike shops,  maybe the one that I have just done on the 550 was replaced with high strength thread locking by a.n.other whereas the original stuff is low strength and therefore comes undone a little easier, I of course know to try and crack the bolt while the forks are built up and to try and put more load on the spring in an effort to stop the damper spinning, there was absolutely no chance of that working, I had to take the spring out and then use an alloy tube onto the damper to get enough weight and friction to get it all the way out, first time I have had that much trouble just getting the bolt out, eh oh, you live and learn, all done and dusted now,

PS the fork strip and service was done because after the twin disc conversion that I carried out the forks were diving like Tom Daley so I have stripped and serviced them then rebuilt with the correct quantity of 15W fork oil, much better now with improved compression damping.

[Bryanj]

P81 of the Honda 500/550 manual tells you to put thread locking compound on the bolt

[OZZYSBIKES]

It says thread lock on the threaded part of the damper where the top lock nut fits, no reference to thread lock on the Allen screw that goes through the bottom of the slider into the bottom of the damper, the later fork doesn't have the lock nut on a threaded bar

[OZZYSBIKES]

I give up, usual forum diatribe

[OZZYSBIKES]

I retract my last post, I have seen both parts of the instruction to use thread locking, but...... I aren't lying, why would I?? 52 years including working for two dealers and all my life and I have never seen loctite on the damper rod bolt or had trouble removing it before,  now if everyone can stop trying to prove me wrong, I'll try not to get pissed off !!

[ST1100]

All due to the po loctiting the damper rod bolt in !

The attached pic shows traces of green thread-lock, which normally shouldn't give much resistance (10Nm)...
I frequently use one drop(!) blue in my jobs (as by Honda manual) with no issues...
The fine debris accumulated over decades (lack of maintenance, some don't seem to care about replacing fork oil) is more notorious for "baking" those bolts in... nearly killed the impact-wrench hex-bit on the '84 CX500E forks...