[joedirt1970]

Greetings Everyone.



As many of you have seen, my T Dub has morphed into a subtle wannabe MX themed T Dub. All of my fabrications have been very simple and I take pride in the fact that I was able to complete those upgrades without breaking my T Dub. I bought some YZ 80 forks (they are in good shape).



This brings me to now. But, it appears the bottom hex bolts might be corroded to the point that I can't get them undone. Not 100% sure, but 85% sure. Any suggestions on how to get the hex bolts out of the bottom of the tubes if they are in fact corroded beyond removal?

 

[qwerty]

Soak in penetrating oil. If possible, soak from both ends. Use an impact bit and hand impact.



Soak 24 hours. 1 impact loose. 1 impact tight.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

 

[joedirt1970]

Soak in penetrating oil. If possible, soak from both ends. Use an impact bit and hand impact.



Soak 24 hours. 1 impact loose. 1 impact tight.

Repeat.

So, did you mention soak? Sorry for the ignorant question, but, you say from both ends...does that mean, remove the fork seal and pour some penetrating oil down from the top of the boot too?

 

[xdac]

Repeat!

 

[qwerty]

So, did you mention soak? Sorry for the ignorant question, but, you say from both ends...does that mean, remove the fork seal and pour some penetrating oil down from the top of the boot too?

If possible. You have nothing to lose.

 

[assquatch20]

The nice thing about allen heads, aside from reliability and whatnot is they're easy to extract if it comes to using an extractor. However for now you should just REPEAT!

 

[qwerty]

Again.



Maybe think about standing the forks allen head down in a bucket of penetrating oil for soaking.

 

[lizrdbrth]

Brock,



You don't need to reuse any of the parts in those nasty old YZ lower legs. You can carefully hacksaw the bottom end off entirely by removing the springs and cutting clean through the lower tubes about 1 1/2" above the allens with the forks extended so you don't hit the tubes. They'll simply fall apart after that.



Alternately you can try making the fork tool and hold the allens stationary while you spin the inner tube with the tool.

 

[Grant]

Before soaking in oil, soak the Allen head bolts (head down)in a small bucket of Coca Cola (Coke) for 12 hours.



The coke works as an acid and only eats the corroded metal.

(Kinda like maggots in a gangerous wound they only eat the dead flesh and leave the good skin alone, thereby cleaning the wound 100% - sorry for the gross comparison

)



With a bit of luck you might not even need to soak in oil afterwards.



Good luck and Kind Regards,

Grant.



PS - Love the Baseball bat and toilet paper in the pic's backgounds.



You planning to beat the shit out of some-one??

 

[lizrdbrth]

I REPEAT



REPEAT



REPEAT



Saw the danged things off and be done with it.



Or give the above suggestions a day, tops. Then saw the danged things off if they don't work.



Use the penetrating oil to light some tiki lights, then chill the coke and drink it beneath their soothing glow. Er sumpin.



Nothing in the lower leg gets reused.



The coke trick works like a champ for tons of corroded stuff, btw.

 

[tok-tokkie]

I am a bit unsure on this technique as it was done while I was not there & explained to me afterwards. I saw the result = rusted allen screw taken out. Use an arc welder, turn the amps quite high, use short piece of thick electrode, good earth connection onto the aluminum part, Jam stick hard into the hex nut. You don't want an arc, you want a dead short. The hex will heat up quickly & expand a lot. When it cools down it should be loose.

 

[uktw125]

I am a bit unsure on this technique as it was done while I was not there & explained to me afterwards. I saw the result = rusted allen screw taken out. Use an arc welder, turn the amps quite high, use short piece of thick electrode, good earth connection onto the aluminum part, Jam stick hard into the hex nut. You don't want an arc, you want a dead short. The hex will heat up quickly & expand a lot. When it cools down it should be loose.

+1 on tok-tokkie's method.

That's how we used to get the counter sunk allen head bolts out off wood chipper machine blades.

Do they ever get stuck fast.

 

[lizrdbrth]

Good suggestions, all. I'm adding the welding rod trick to my arsenal.



But even if it comes down to destroying the lower legs, no reason to give up if you can't get the allens loose. If these were your TW legs you'd want to take any and all of the above steps to save them. Antique YZ lowers aren't exactly a hot resale item. All you're after is the main tubes. Just sayin'.



With the fork springs and caps removed from the top, you can slide the tubes to the fully extended position, then cut through the aluminum walls of the fork tubes, through the ends of the skinny tubes with the little holes in the end, at the bottom left and right of this pic. YZ fork guts on the left, TW fork guts on the right:

These are what the allen bolt connects to. You want to cut the forks above the end of the allen bolt.



The shorter one on the right is the TW lower tube, which you'll be reusing from your TW front end. But there's a corresponding longer one in the YZ fork. You can waste the YZ tubes because they won't be reused.



You want to remove the fork springs before cutting so the forks won't launch themselves from spring tension once you cut through the steel inner tube.



This will all make more sense once you have the forks apart and can see how the parts interrelate.

 

[joedirt1970]

I don't have an arc welder, I live in an apartment and my T Dub lives in the living room. But I do have a good hacksaw...anyone thing cutting through with a hacksaw is a bad idea other than putting in A LOT of elbow grease? I also considered cutting it with a hand-held grinder. Any pros or cons?

 

[RodneyReed]

I don't have an arc welder, I live in an apartment and my T Dub lives in the living room. But I do have a good hacksaw...anyone thing cutting through with a hacksaw is a bad idea other than putting in A LOT of elbow grease? I also considered cutting it with a hand-held grinder. Any pros or cons?

It might be easier than you think with the hacksaw. You might try that first, then goto plan B if you have to.

 

[lizrdbrth]

I got yer back, bud. I know your situation. That's why I recomended bypassing doing it the polite ways.



Hacksaw will work. With good blades it shouldn't take more than a few monutes per side.



Dr. Makita makes it easier. Either way, you'll be safe to cut anything from 2"-4" above the allen, just make sure the forks are fully extended.

 

[joedirt1970]

I had a TW forum member help me with remove the fork tubes from the boots. Now I just need to do the process. Lizard Breath mentioned having a hex long enough to less/remove the hex at the bottom of the fork and go from there. Now that I have a garage, maybe I will try to tackle the project.