learned something about forks today

 I'm in the middle of a spring maintenance round on the '99 YZ. New
front tire, brake pads both ends (and a rear disc), top end, replacing
all the carb vent hoses, repack the silencer.

As I replaced the front wheel and bolted down the axle, I was
determined to understand why I was supposed to tighten the axle first,
then compress the forks several times to "fit the wheel axle to the
axle holders" and then tighten the axle pinch bolts. I've always done
this, but kind of half-heartedly not really understanding what I was
trying to accomplish. (Whadda ya mean?--the axle fits the holders
perfectly...)

I sat there staring at the forks, the wheel and the axle after
tightening the axle, comparing it to the other YZ's, and I suddenly
realized what this is all about. The forks were bow-legged
so-to-speak; I could see the lower legs weren't parallel to the upper
sliders.

I gave the forks several compression cycles, and nothing changed. I
was pretty sure the problem was that the axle pinch casting was too
tight despite the bolts being completely loose, so I found a nice thin
putty knife, carefully inserted it in the small opening and gently
pried the pinch casting apart around each end of the axle.

I held the front brake locked and gave it several good compression
cycles, and I could see the bottom of forks move apart from each
other, slowly sliding out parallel to the axle. Eventually the end of
the axle was just slightly inboard of the outer edge of the pinch
casting, and the forks seemed to be parallel.

I love that AHA! feeling.

I may be the last one left here on rmd to figure this one out, but in
case I'm not, I hope it can help someone.

--
Charles
'99 YZ250

 On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:48:30 -0700, HardWorkingDog


On the '07s, the box is in front of the radiator, but behind the
stem.  If it was thicker, it could conceivably be in the way.
Steering lock to the left is no different than it is to the right
on either of the '07s here.


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Go fast and aim for where the trees aren't.
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