Fork tube stuck Compressed

Hey people. I was installing Hyperpro's this afternoon and surprising everything was going so easy until we started to drain the old fork oil. We started to pump the fork tube and it got stuck all the way down. Pulling and pulling but the inner fork tube wouldn't decompress. We ended up taking out the very bottom bolt and of course it was freed.

Whatever we do it still sticks down. How come? Any insight would be appreciated. The other fork tube was just fine. I didn't expect this to trip me up. Dammit, it's always something.

Also we left out the spacer and the Hyperpro said to fill the fluid 200mm from the top without the spring. Can't wait to feel the difference!

Alrighty, thanks in advance. Chat with you later.

You always have 2 adversaries, Gremlins and Murphey´s law.
If the one don´t get you the other will.
You schedule 15 min and it takes 2 hours because of a tiny detail what screws with you.
Welcome to the life of a technician, mechanic, or hobby whatever.

Oh I know all about it Sepp. Either something stumbling you up or bleeding somehow. Good times.

You might try bolting the offending fork tube back in the triple tree and judiciously hammering on the caliper & fender mount bosses (use a wood block) on the lower tube. That may coax the tube free. You’ll need to support the front end while you do this. My 2¢

Tim

Any idea what’s causing this?

sometimes things get stuck, fused together, rusted together.
Often the only right way to do it is take it out completely and put it on the work bench.
I just wanted to change one fork oil seal and ended up to have to remove the complete front to reach the screws to the the whole tubes to take out.
One lower screw came out easily the other spun with the inner tube.
I finally had enough from this nonsense and put a drill with a bit in, to separate the inner tube via high speed and force and it worked with in seconds at 1000 rpm.

What is that a photo of? While it does show a traditional triple tree, sans fork tubes, it certainly isn’t that of a FSC/FJS Silverwing. If it is from a SW-T it is significantly different than a FSC/FJS model. How does that photo help the OP?

Tim

No it is not, it is when I had just wanted to change one lousy fork seal on my Spidermax and had to dismantle all. It is an example of an easy job goes complicated as I mentioned in the conversion above.
I do cross references between bikes when I think It might give the OP an idea how things can get out of hand etc. and when I have photo material from my tech adventures.

Are there any signs the bike was in a crash? Fork tube could be bent. Tube binding on inner bushings. I'm sure it was rotated to a different position pumping it. Doesn't take much to bind it won't be visible to eye. You will need to free it and measure with a dial indicator. Lower locked in a vise and upper tube rotated to see the run out. I don't know a spec. but if it varies then tube is bent.

I've been wrong before and will be again. Just a possible solution.

Hey Mech. Doesn't appear to have any crash damage on that side of the bike. For some reason the oil lock piece(#11) was getting stuck within the inner fork pipe(#5). Upon replacement no more problems.



My brother is very satisfied with the difference! He went on a long ride today and said the Swing feels so much better. Probably the last decent day to go.

Would've been an easy 2 hour job if it wasn't for that damn part! It was still fun though figuring it out with my brother. Good times!

Great happy you repaired it. Crud always ends up at the bottom. Bound it up. Ride On.

That # 11 part got damaged when we had to beat the tar outta # 5 to "open" the forks up for new fork seals. I notched the top of # 14 so I can lock it with a big flat blade screwdriver if I ever have to go back into the forks again.

I know that Mech1 mentioned “crud”, but did you ever determine the where & what actually caused the binding? How did you access that lower fork area so that you could force the inner fork tube free?

Tim

Cosmic- we compared the used part 11 with the new one, and the new one was thicker. That is, the thickness of the upper hole. When looking closely at the used part 14, one could see some wear from where it was sticking inside of used 11. Does that make sense?

When it was stuck, we undid the bottom bolt (part 21) and everything came apart.

#14 is Fork piston. Oil flow is in there, holes drilled in tube. #11 oil lock piece. Crud you pushed it down to a place it never was and it stuck. If seals were leaking then a bit of water could have gone in there also. Bushing wear also puts metal in there.

Removing the lower folk bolt is best with a air ratchet or gun. Spins it much faster and it comes out.

Seat pipe(14) was marred at the bottom all the way around by the spring(12) within the oil lock piece(11). Despite cleaning 11, 14 and the bottom of the inner fork pipe(5) it still stuck without any crud. It was driving us mad.