Topic: Help! Front fork maintenance

[hellcat287]

Hi,

I've been a member of this site for five or six months now and have learned quite a bit.  I'm working on a 74 cb550 and need to perform some maintenance on the front brake and fork.

My problem is that I don't have a proper motorcycle stand to get the front of the bike off of the ground. 

Would it be ok to block wood under the crankcase to keep the front of the bike up so that I can work on it?  I'd never do this on an engine in a car since the oil pan is very thin.  And frankly i'm hesitant to do it on the bike also but I thought i'd get some opinions.

The other tought that I had was to use by cherry picker and some straps on the fork to life the bike and hold it up.  Again, it's kind of mickey mouse and if the cherry pick were to leak any air that could be bad.

thanks for any input.

[BobbyR]

Back in the day I would use ratchet straps on the handlebars and looped to a big hook attached to a ceiling joist. If yo have a center stand once the wheel is off the bike will tip backward. The straps allow you to push down on things without the bike tipping forward.

[Bob Wessner]

If you have a garage with exposed, sturdy rafters, you can hoist it with a strap under the bars and over the rafter. That's how I did my front-end work.

[domer]

since i dont have a center stand   i use 2 jack stands, 1 on each side of the frame. took a little practice, but i can get my 500 on and off with ease, i wouldnt use the case, just the frame. might have to take off your exhaust, depending on what you have....

[Lavis500]

When securing my bike (cb500) to a trailer, I once noticed that when on the center stand, you can apply enough pressure to the rear grab rail so that the front end lifts off of the ground.

If you don't have any over head hooks or rafters, you could possibly attach one end of a ratchet strap to a low place on the floor (around a low work bench leg, under a very heavy appliance) with the opposite end of the strap on your rear rail.  The center stand will act as a fulcrum, and the front end should lift a couple inches - enough to be able to work.

Good luck!

[MoMo]

I have used a block of wood distributed under the oil pan , never had any problem. The aluminum material is thick enough, but if you can have the wood across the frame  rails that'd be better yet. An ATV jack is a fairly cheap alternative if you don't want to buy a lift. I was fortunate to get a lift from Harbor Freight for $270.  Whatever you use, just make sure the cycle is secure, Larry

[hellcat287]

thanks everyone for their suggestions.  Since I don't really have any accessible rafters I decided to use the center stand as a pivot and lift the bike by the bars with my cherry picker which worked fine UNTIL I discovered I had a small leak out of my cherry picker

So I ended up using a strap attached to the rear frame and pulling it down using the cherry picker's weight as leverage to keep the bike up.  So far so good!

I managed to pull the right fork last night.  According to the shop manual it was a matter of pulling out two bolts and the fork should slide right out! lol well it was pretty much rusted into place at the top so I had to use a small drift and a mallet to tap the fork out.

thanks again!