Ok. I got sick of other people taking pics of me doing stuff, so I decided to take pics of me doing stuff.
MX is at work today, like most people who work, so I got to pursue this little endeavor myself, after she helped me put the bike up on the center stand. (it's a bear since it's 2" lower than stock...
) The garage is a mess but I wasn't about to clean it up just to take pictures.
So.
Here's the Kit:
The bike, with my car's jack placed just behind the filter housing, with a chunk of wood between it and the aluminum engine, to prevent metal-on-metal hating. I just lifted it high enough to where I could easily spin the front wheel with my hand, but not real far off the ground in case '#$%* happens' as it is wont to do.:
The Other Kit:
The new springs (oooh shiny) + go juice
What MoTo-Bunny would call a "jenky-ass" bastard tool #1- for the fork caps,
turned out to be a 10mm bolt, with a couple nuts on. The top holds the bottom one in place for the unscrewing motions, the bottom one holds the top one in place for the in-screwing motions.:
This is my lovely cockpit. I wish I still had the white lettering, but ya can't have it all. I took the windshield off. It looks sorta nice that way, but I realy dig my windshield.
Dash got dismantled so I could pull the handlebars out of the way. The 650 is set up so if you drop the forks thru the triple trees, the caps come to rest on the bottom of the handlebars.
The nuts 'n bolts tool worked really really well for getting the fork caps off. I was a little surprised at what I found. I expected the cap to be under some spring pressure, but there was either none or very, very little. Here are a couple of pics of the spring sitting in the tube as it was:
This is supposed to be to scale but it just makes my finger look bigger than it really is. The springs were a good 3/4" below the tops of the forks.
I thought that was really weird, so I pulled out the spring and laid it next to the new one:
Weird.
I re-read the directions and looked at the parts fiche to make sure there wasn't another spring under that one that I needed to remove. Progressive's directions said not to remove the spring under the damper unit, so... nope, that was that.
Huh.
Shrugged and put the new spring in, then pulled it out to make sure there was 5.5" of fork fluid in, and there was. Fork fluid was still a nice clear bluish from when I rebuilt the forks last year.
I don't have a pic of how the new springs sat in the forks, but a good 3/4" in of spring was exposed out the top of the fork tube after I dropped it down inside. That was... odd... as well, and nothing to that effect was mentioned in my instructions. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to add to the preload, or what.
Whatever the case, though it didn't take a LOT to push the cap down, it was still kind of a lot of effort, combined with trying to screw the damn thing on. I'm not sure how other people do it, but I was at kind of a loss for a little bit. Then I came up with:
Bastard Tool #2
We just bought a breaker bar, which was just right for getting necessary leverage to put some weight into it, but the adjustable angle of the thing made it about impossible to really put weight on it straight up-and-down, so I splinted it with some tape and a pair of bolts. Kinda hairy, and next time I'd probably use duct tape, but it worked, so w/e.
One hand way up top pushing down, and one hand turning the whole unit to screw those damn caps in. Went much easier than the other way.
Got everything reassembled, took the jack out from under the bike, walked the bike off its center stand and got situated again on the side stand. This is when I put zip ties on each of the fork legs and got on the bike. No change. I couldn't make the forks compress getting on/getting off before, with the spongy springs, either, though. I'm just that freakin' light. Backed up a little bit, then scooted forward and hit the brakes hard. Doing that I got 30mm of travel. Much firmer feel than before, and I notice it even just straightening the front end from being in the 'lock' position. Before the fork would squish around a little bit with just that maneuvering. Now things feel tight and stiff. Unfortunately, I have to wait until Honda gets my valve adjustment cover gaskets in before I can take 'er for a test ride, unless I want to be covered in oil again.
What's the viscosity difference between ATF and 10w? Ive read that ATF is what's recommended for this bike, but 10w is what's in there right now because the mechanic I was working with at that point said 10w would do the job.
Any input is more than welcome!
