Removing forkleg bushings


Removing forkleg bushings without a special puller or tool is not that easy. Especially you donīt want to damage the forklegs by messing around with a scewdriver and other tools. There is a quiet easy and cheap way to pull those bushings out with a homemade pulling-tool.

My forklegs are from some late series [80 to 83] and are supplied with teflon coated bushings. This How-To should work just fine for all other type of forks and bushings. I donīt get into lapping of older types of bushings in here. This should just be an idea how to get those bushings out.

 

You need those things listed below to build the tool:
[all sizes in metric untis here]

- a 12mm threaded rod with an about length of 30cm
- five 12mm nuts
- two large washers
- a steel-plate about 10x10cm [min. 5mm strong]
- a steel-disc with 43mm diameter [min. 5mm strong]
- an old piece of carpet / or rubber mat, 10x10cm
- some 1cm wide stripes of hard masonite [or similar]




Drill a 13mm width hole into the 10x10cm steel-plate. Place two checknuts on one end of the threaded rod and add one of the large washers. Drill a 13mm slot into the steel-disc. You must be able to flip the disc vertical on the rod. Weīll use the disc as an keeper witch will be placed under the bushing in the leg. To fit the plate through the bushing, file some millimeters off two opposite spots of the disc and put the disc on the rod. Insert the flipped disc and the rod into the forkleg and place the disc underneath the bushing. Now take the steel-plate and place it on top of the forkleg. Add another large washer and a nut and tighten the hole construction. Place two more checknuts on the other end of the rod and clamp that side into a bench vice.

Now you can further tighten the nut on top of the steel-plate. The nut will pull the bushing out from the leg. If the bushing is being pulled against the plate use something as stripes of hard masonite or similar between plate and forkleg edges.


Gerry