1979 XS400 Fork Removal

Dennis Moore

XS400 Enthusiast
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Greetings All. I'm having a hard time getting the forks to drop after I removed the clips and pucks from the fork tops. The pinch bolts are completely out. Is there something I'm missing or are they just rust stuck? I squirted PB Blaster around the tops. I don't want to just start pound on them. Thanks for any help you can offer.

DM
 
Easier if front wheel is off. That way weight is not working so much against you.

Take a slot screwdriver and insert in the cut at the clamp bolts and barely open the clamps up a little more. Be careful, often that is cast steel and WILL crack off if you spread the gap too wide. Just a little should unclamp enough to come loose.
 
I would only impact the top with the cap screwed FULLY back in place but not tight and even then give up quick. The fork cap threads are fine and strip easy as spit. Use ONLY like aluminum or brass drift there; NO steel socket. If cap is not steel then plastic dead blow hammer.

Removing the top triple clamp would allow the fork tubes to wallow around to come loose easier. You could then wiggle the bottom of each to probably come loose.
 
These forks have a rubber cap not a threaded steel cap. I'm gonna try a 1" PVC square head plug as a driver. If that doesn't work I'll remove the top triple clamp as you suggested. Thanks.
 
The true cap nut is under the rubber beauty cover. Virtually every fork on earth has screw in caps, there are hundreds of pounds of pressure there at some times of high impact to forks. Look at the parts on page C10 in the part list here onsite, clearly shows it. Part #23...........cap bolt. Threads into top of fork tube.
 
The SOHC xs400 forks have a plug and c-clip under the rubber fork tube cover. I think the DOHC bikes have the screw in type. With the wheel, top clamp and fender off hit the tube with a rubber mallet and it should slide out. Post pics of what you got.
 
Yes. This is what I have on the 79 SOHC XS400 I recently acquired. My profile pictures shows an 82 Seca 400RJ I sold last summer. I think that had the slotted top bolts.

I got the forks to slide out after I loosened the bottom set of pinch boots. Duh. Thanks guys.
 
The seal part could be an unthreaded simple o-ringed plug but the parts list calls it a bolt. That method could work but it will be the first motorcycle Ive ever seen that did that and including even small ones like 100 and 90. That means nothing of course if the part IS a simple plug. A plug with no threads will begin to swedge around loose as the fork spring works on it, it should over time leak easier. Again, I may be full of crap though. The upper fork tube is essentially the same thing in the lower tube, a plug, but it overlaps by a good 4 inches+ to make sure any working of it is dead straight up and down with no sideways action yet with long use you even see those wallow out the part they run in.
 
Well, you're actually allowed once then you are supposed to know.

I learned mine some 50 years ago while trying to split Honda CB350 cases without removing the two bolts on the top of engine case. Almost destroyed engine before finding them. Since then, as soon as something does not come loose quick and easy I am all over the assembly looking for the hidden fastener(s).

But then I am OCD about such things and likely why I haven't stripped or broken a bolt in so long I cannot remember. Some of it also from the drag racing garage where breaking a one off custom part like severely modded heads could cost a thousand bucks instantly, if not more. The heads on the 700 inch pro stock car were valued at $10K each.
 
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