J&P Community

 Need to replace oil seals on 87 FXRS.  The shop manual says caution springs may be under compression.  Are the springs likely to be dangerously compressed or can I hold down on the caps and take them off when loose?  any tips are thankfully requested.  tips for getting the caps back on would be welcome also

thanks

If you have the bike up on and secured to a jack with all the weight off the front wheel, you can hold the cap down as you loosen it by hand on most bikes. You don’t want it tearing away from the threads when you get to the end. I replaced mine in that same reverse order, by holding it down and turning the cap with a wrench. I’m sure someone with more experience can tell us both if this will work on your machine. Cross threading is a major concern here.

 Its a real good idea to take all the weight off the front before taking the cap off. My springs are about 6-8" above the trees after the cap is off. Just make sure you have a good grip on the cap as you take it off, it can do some damage if it goes flying.

To reinforce what Irishpj stated......not only is it a good idea but a must to take the weight off the front end.   The first time I removed my caps I  just screwed them out.....YIKES!!!!.....You have to remember that the spring is preloaded before you put the weight down on the front which means you are fighting the preload plus the weight of the front of the bike!.......much easier to lift the bike until the front wheel is off the ground......unless your arms are as large as HellBoy's (the movie)

To put the cap back on I took a *** punch and put a small mark on the edge of the cap where the threads actually start to give you an idea where to place the nut on the fork tube to begin threading it on.....If you do this before you install the spring it will make life easier when you are ready to preload the spring!  Good luck!

 Bit the bullet, rode to Dothan, had an old h/d mech at his indy shop do it while I watched.  I took pictures, listened and learned alot of good stuff for the future.  3 hours latter front end fixed, primary chain adj. drive belt adj  and heard some good stories about the good ole days.  100.00 well spent. Thanks for the help yall---GAdog

So did the 'old H/D mech' have his own technique or was our advice pretty close?

 Well yea, the info would have helped, but the mech pulled everything from the bottom after he jacked the front wheel off the floor.  funny thing though was the spring stayed inside the fork when the cap was taken off.  I mean if I just have to replace the oil in the future, I can take off the cap and pour it in, the spring does not need to be compressed.  After he had it all back together the last thing he did was put the oil in and just screwed the cap back on with no spring sticking up to push on. His explanation was that the 35mm forks are tapered at the top and fit into a tapered hole in the top tree.  Make any sense to ya?

an '87 FX has 35mm tubes?  I thought they had gone to 39mm by then.

on my '77, yes the top of the tubes are tapered where the fit into the upper tree, and the spring doesn't extend past the tube - you have to compress it slightly (maybe half an inch) to get the cap to start. 

Well I learned something today!  I knew some bikes had tapered tubes but didn't know which...thanks for the info!

 My 81 XLH does..