FJ11 front suspension

[homerfj1100]

I have replaced the seal on the left fork. All done by the book. Fork back in place. Now I tried to adjust the preload and the damping. Pressed in the damper screw and tried to turn ( as the book says) nothing moves. Now the pressed in damper screw won´t spring up again. It´s stuck down. No amount of fiddling seems to work. What could the problem be? Thanks. Tony ( 85 FJ1100)

[FJmonkey]

Sounds like something went amiss during reassembly. The D shape rod maybe misaligned. If that part binds in the damper unit it could cause the symptom you describe. Unscrew the cap and make sure the D-rod slides in easy. Or upgrade to the RPM valves and toss most of the D-rod out.

[racerrad8]

As already mentioned, the "D" shape adjuster rod is not in the center adjusting hole and is stuck in one of the outside oil holes.



Randy - RPM

[homerfj1100]

As already mentioned, the "D" shape adjuster rod is not in the center adjusting hole and is stuck in one of the outside oil holes.



Randy - RPM

I just replied to this. Ta very much anyway. Best wishes. Tony.

[Alf]

Tony

Like I said you when you started with your fork nightmare: plan a weekend on Tenerife and we do in my home

[andyb]

And that is the best ever picture of that that you will ever see.  Kickass, Randy!

I've only ever seen it through a haze of oil at the bottom of a fork tube whilst swearing at it because i ran out of hands between the fork tube, cap, and flashlight. 

Not bitter.  Honest.  But it does take some swearing to get it right.

[homerfj1100]

Tony

Like I said you when you started with your fork nightmare: plan a weekend on Tenerife and we do in my home

You know Alf, you´re right, it was and , maybe, still is a nightmare as the left and right ´settings´ are now different. My probem is, I don´t seek help until things get beyond my control. I shall look at the calendar ( my wife is in the UK at the moment and may be there for a few weeks more) and hopefully Fred Olsen and a cheap hotel will help. Thank you.

[homerfj1100]

And that is the best ever picture of that that you will ever see.  Kickass, Randy!

I've only ever seen it through a haze of oil at the bottom of a fork tube whilst swearing at it because i ran out of hands between the fork tube, cap, and flashlight. 

Not bitter.  Honest.  But it does take some swearing to get it right.

And that is the best ever picture of that that you will ever see.  Kickass, Randy!

I've only ever seen it through a haze of oil at the bottom of a fork tube whilst swearing at it because i ran out of hands between the fork tube, cap, and flashlight. 
Not bitter.  Honest.  But it does take some swearing to get it right.

Yep, not bitter, just frustrated. Randy´s pic is the best and reminds me of the radiation warning signs we had in school, for the small amounts of fissionable material we had. Ho ho. Why is it that the site ´´over the pond´´ is more responsive?

[soundmindryan]

As already mentioned, the "D" shape adjuster rod is not in the center adjusting hole and is stuck in one of the outside oil holes.
Randy - RPM

+1  Happened to me, too. Randy is correct. (Hello!)  Easy to do.

Ryan

[racerrad8]

...still is a nightmare as the left and right ´settings´ are now different.

That is because at some point the fork(s) have been apart and not re-assembled properly.

If the index groove is not held on the index screw then the damper rod is now where ever it wants to be in a 360* radius and you have no way of knowing what adjustment position the damper rod is set to.

99% percent of the forks I build here are just that way, not indexed properly. That's right, 99%, I have only disassembled one set of forks that were both properly indexed. The reason they were properly indexed was because they had never been disassembled from the date it left the factory.

It is time to pull them all the way down and start fresh...

Randy - RPM

PS, if you zoom in on the picture, you can see the far edge of the groove has a depression where it was tightened down on the index screw.

[TexasDave]

Randy did the fork mod on my bike a month ago and yes the previous owner did not have the forks indexed right. But I'm not quite indexed right either.

[aviationfred]

There have been a few references about members taking their FJ's to their local service department for a broad range of service. With the age of our bikes, a lot of the service techs have problems assembling things back correctly.

I have ran across this myself with getting a head rebuilt. I tried to have the head rebuilt locally. After 3 months, I got fed up with the delay and shipped the head to Randy. With shipping time, the turn around was less than 30 days from Kansas to California and back.

On my 2nd FJ, the forks had the RPM fork valves installed when I purchased the bike. The forks did not function properly. With the lesson learned from the head. I sent the forks to Randy for repair and a complete rebuild.

Now I have one FJ with a fresh head that runs great and another FJ with properly functioning forks.

If you don't have the technical expertise or the time to perform a major repair/rebuild of an item. I highly recommend having Randy at RPM do the work. You will NOT be disappointed.

Fred

[Pat Conlon]

Truer words have never been spoken, thanks Fred! 

[movenon]

+1 on the above. 
George

[racerrad8]

I have ran across this myself with getting a head rebuilt. I tried to have the head rebuilt locally. After 3 months, I got fed up with the delay and shipped the head to Randy. With shipping time, the turn around was less than 30 days from Kansas to California and back.

Don't forget, I had a knee ACL revision surgery in that time frame as well...

Randy - RPM