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Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice. Im lowering my forks with a new air shaft. Ive done this before plus lower leg services with no problems but this time for the life of me i cant get the rebound lower leg bolt to loosen or tighten, its just spinning freely.
Has anyine any tips on how i can get this to undo/tighten? Ive tried putting pressuring on the forks by fully compressing and fully extending the forks but its having non of it and the bolt and rod spin together in the leg.
Any ideas please as to what to try?
Thanks
First of all, use sharp motions when acting on the screw itself, be it doing or undoing.
You could try pressurizing the cartridge (not sure if the bladder won't burst) using the bleeding fitting and a pump...
Failing that, drill out the rebound shaft screw, assuming it won't turn together with the drill bit.
Option 3: drill through the lowers, punch a guide dimple into rebound shaft using a sharp spoke, continue drilling through rebound shaft, use the said spoke to keep the shaft from turning.
Crikey sounds a bit drastic. Was hopeing to get it out without having to drill it, If it was the non driveside I probably would drill it out as I have a few air shafts.
i have tried everything now but the rod seems to be spinning inside the leg and the bolt won’t come free.
Have you tried pulling down on the bolt and keeping hand pressure on it so that the damper shaft has friction against the bottom of the inside of the lower and then with free hand tapping the Allen key with a mallet or some such to initiate a very sharp movement as suggested
Heat the bolt up and try again.
yeah tried that pulling and pushing on the fork. I’ve tried with pliers to pull the bolt whilst turning but no joy.
ill give heat a go see if that frees it.
Try taking it to a garage and ask for them to try an impact wrench on it.
Got a plastic tyre lever? Put it between the fork lower and the bolt head and lever the bolt downwards (i.e the tyre lever upwards) that usually works for us 🙂 YMMV of course.
Tried everything. Used an impact drill,heated it ,I also tried levering it with a knife between the bottom of leg and bolt similar to above but nothing seemed to budge it.
I’ve got it out but not the way I wanted to 🙂
I ended up hacksawing it off the bottom 😮 as there was just enough gap. Pulled the lowers off leaving a bit of thread which I’ve got out with some pliers. Tbh I don’t think there’s any way on earth I’d of got it out any other way as it was proper welded in.
When I replace it I’ll grease it up. I’ve just got to make sure I properly clean the lowers now to get rid of any filings.
The rod does seem to have a couple of mm of side to side play? Is this normal? I can’t remember now, I do have another set of pikes but I don’t fancy taking them to bits to compare. Just hoping I haven’t caused any more damage.
Just coming back to this. I finally managed to get hold of a new rebound adjust knob and bolt.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I've put the lower back on and correct oil but the bolt is binding and only goes in a couple of threads before it binds and won't go in any further. I've taken the lower back off and checked the bolt off my other pikes that binds too. If I try the nut off the other leg that goes in fine so the threads ok. </span>
Any ideas as to what to try next?
Thanks
Is there loads of loctite on the rebound bolts that may require a bit more effort to get in? I think the threads are the same on both rebound and Spring legs so could be that?
Yeah there is a bit but not a great deal. I'll try taking a bit off to see.
Yeah as said I've tried the bolt from the other leg and that goes in fine. It's just this rebound bolt and I've tried the one from my other pikes and that binds aswell.
I think this is all pretty common. I had the same problem getting the bolt out - resorted to bike shop. They used screwdriver under the flange levering it up while turning. It worked. The last time I serviced them I couldn’t get the bolt to do back up and only worked by completely compressing the fork then tightening. Overall quite a frustrating experience!
I have had the same issue - you need to retap the threads on the bolt and probably the air shaft.
Ok thanks guys. I'll try that.
What size is the bolt does anyone know?<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">' I'm gonna try and get hold of a set today and retap it.</span>
Thanks
It’s an M8. I’ve just got hold of a set and re-tapped the threads on the air shaft which was the problem and all is good.
Thanks all for the help. Can finally get them back together 🙂