Fork Rebuild Problem

Need some advice. I am rebuilding forks with upgraded Cosentino teflon bushings and seals from NYC Norton. bushings, seals, sliders and dust covers all went smoothly, but when I tightened up the bolts that secure the springs and rods, on one fork the bolt tightened up fine, but on the other leg it just spins. It never got tight, so I did not strip it, unless it was already stripped. Now I can't tighten or remove it. Tried double nutting the threads on the top of the rod but that makes no difference. What the hell. Hoping someone can explain or offer some advice before I start throwing wrenches! Thanks.

You may have cross threaded the bolt which would just spin the damper. What I would do is keep the top fork nut tightly secured to the damper rod, pull up on that while not threaded into the fork tube and try to unscrew that stuck bolt. I have an air impact gun that works great for these cases.

Have you tried an impact wrench? Sometime the impact/rotation/speed will spin out even a partially skipped bolt. I've got a 18V Ryobi and it works very well on such jobs. If the thread in the bottom of the damper body is stripped I think the only way forward is to drill off the head of the bolt so you can remove the damper/spring assembly and then sort the thread out with a helicoil of whatever once it's apart.

impact is a good idea, but it threaded in smoothly all the way by hand with a socket and extention until semi snug, so didn't feel cross threaded. I will try the impact though.

bsaboss said:

Have you tried an impact wrench? Sometime the impact/rotation/speed will spin out even a partially skipped bolt. I've got a 18V Ryobi and it works very well on such jobs. If the thread in the bottom of the damper body is stripped I think the only way forward is to drill off the head of the bolt so you can remove the damper/spring assembly and then sort the thread out with a helicoil of whatever once it's apart.

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thank you, I will try my impact to remove it and see if that does the trick....

Big Red said:

but when I tightened up the bolts that secure the springs and rods, on one fork the bolt tightened up fine, but on the other leg it just spins.

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Do you mean one of the damper tube retaining bolts in the bottom of the slider? If the bolt is a little tight in the damper thread then the damper tube can turn with the bolt.

I owe you guys a beer! Impact zipped out the bolt in a fraction of a second. threads and they were fine. tightened bolt into damper rod outside of fork slider and it tightened up fine. re-assembled and had the same spinning issue, but a half-second blip with the impact and it snugged up tight no problem. Cold beer time! Forks on bike tomorrow

big thank you

L.A.B. said:

Do you mean one of the damper tube retaining bolts in the bottom of the slider? If the bolt is a little tight in the damper thread then the damper tube can turn with the bolt.

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That’s what happened. Should have cleaned the threads, as there was a bit of corrosion and scale on them.