Hey all, I finally got round to doing a bit of work on the K. 1st up was to fit some fork gaiters and give the head bearings a good clean and grease. So up on the paddock stands with her and off with the front wheel. I've slackened off the pinch bolts in the yokes, given it a good coat of penetrating stuff, made a brew and....well that's as for as I got! They will not budge! Any ideas? Or am I missing something? I plan on taking off the top yoke so with any luck I'm just wrestling with the bottom yoke. And think a little diesel to try and free them off?

Also, is it normal to be able to push down on the fork caps on the top of the stanchion?

Try a wide, flat wedge gently prised into the 'split' of the triple clamps after removing the tension bolts. This should allow the legs to drop free of the triples. Gentle raps from a soft hammer round the bits might ease them out after widening the splits.

Yeah what he said and it is normal for the top plugs to do that it is the way to pulling them apart. When you push it down a circlip is exposed.

Knocked some wedges in I made at work from a hammer handle that was lying about, soaked the yokes with some diesel.

Still stuck fast!!!!

If you have the top yoke off then clamp it to the leg so as to be able to twist it in the bottom yoke. It's always a problem of how to hold them without doing any damage.

bettyswolloks wrote:Knocked some wedges in I made at work from a hammer handle that was lying about, soaked the yokes with some diesel.

Still stuck fast!!!!

Which model? It helps to have the bike listed in your signature at the bottom. If 8V then it's one pinch bolt per side per triple clamp. 16V models use two per side per triple clamp. The 16V models also have a small aluminium wedge which the upper screws retain, but which can stop the clamps from spreading enough.

I had to get the top triple clamp off my 16V yesterday and it took a large 'soft' hammer and a block of wood to shake it free.

FINALLY!!! Got the buggers off

Took the top yoke off, had to be heavy handed with it to get it off. Then I had to hammer the buggers down, wood on top of them and I just hammered them HARD! They moved about 5mm with each blow, I'm a big fella with a 5lb lump hammer and it was still a fight, I also had some small wedges knocked into the gaps. When they got to be flush with the bottom yoke I had another battle on my hands, how do I get them past the bottom yoke? I could hit them as the top nut is not like a jap bike is it. So I got a socket extension bar and gave the bottom yoke a tap from bottom every time I tapped the fork leg moved down a little, and I mean a little 1mm at most! If I gave it a big hit it wouldn't move, so I had to tap it out. I would get one leg lower than the other and let the spring do some work, I left the fork brace on for this purpose. When they finally came off the amount of corrosion that caused the problem surprised Me, there was very little!!   

Anyway, the flipping things are off, they revealed head bearings that need replacing and raised a few more questions for you lovely people

Cheers Folks.
   Daz,

New head bearings and tyres last April had my RT feeling like it was on rails. Getting the forks out was same problem as yours too.

Wonder if the fork brace was the cause of your problem? Would have removed that first. John

Yeah, I removed mine on the75 one at a time after failing to remove them as a pair.
Mine needed some serious walloping with a lump hammer and a piece of oak as a cushion.
The worst job was getting the stanchions out of the sliders though. I was sure I was doing some damage but they eventually came away by using the stanchions like a slide hammer. 
I've got one rebuilt now with new re chromed stanchion, support bushings and seals. Take a crack at the other one tomorrow. Must take some photos for you all to look at.