When I leave a driveway or over a decent bump I get a clunk in the front that sounds like the mudguard is crunching into something but there is no marks appearing on anything. It isn't the stem bearings, it must be something in the forks, going by the dust cover marks the forks are travelling 60mm, could this mean they are bottoming out?
If you start going down your street and squeeze the front brake lever pretty hard can you duplicate the same noise? Mine has significant dive from the factory 5th gen springs and they will be getting racetech upgrade springs soon. The speed bumps makes me think they are bottoming out. (Can you feel it in the handlebars?) You can also put some kind of tracer substance like baby powder or chalk pretty high up on the tube travel area and do a couple vigorous stops or speed bumps and see how high the tracer is disturbed. I wouldn't worry about your seals since If it is bottoming out you might as well replace them too.
Try washing out forks and changing out old oil first. OK, you say it's not, but if your bike has 35,000 miles or more, head bearings may need replacement. :loyal:
Awfully precise number for a part that depends on so many variables. The head bearings on my vfr with 65k miles are fine. They need replacement when they exhibit symptoms of going bad. The symptoms he was describing sound strongly like bottoming out. Pretty bad if it happens going down the driveway but there are distinctly different symptoms for worn steering head bearings. Based on the information given I'm leaning towards front end bottoming out.
New oil and seals fitted a couple of months ago, I haven't tried braking hard enough to see if I could replicate it , but I'm fairly sure the rear wheel would be in the air before it did it. I may make some spacers to go on top of the springs and see if that reduces it and if so I'll fit new springs
Did you do the work? If not, I would be checking all nuts and bolts. Pretty much of a coincidence that the noise started shortly after some work was done in that area. Might especially check the bolt at the bottom of the forks.
I did the work, done plenty of forks over the years so the problem is not something I haven't done, problem is I hadn't ridden it before this so I don't know if it was there before I got it
Ok so here is another question, with the front wheel jacked off the ground, how much pressure should you need to apply to get the top screw caps back on, how much should the spring spacer stick out through the top?
The stock location for 5th gen preload adjusters is 3 notches visible. I would definitely add some (5 to 10mm total) spacers to your stock springs so you have more adjustability and the potential for more sporty front end. If that is your thing.. In the owners manual there is an illustrated diagram. As for how hard to press down to get the springs in, and caps on, it varies from bike to bike but pretty damn hard with some bikes. Sometimes just about all one man can do alone. Just be mindful of where you position your face and teeth if the cap slips and spring loaded metal flies up at you! I have spent 2 hours trying to cram the guts of the forks back into goldwings. BY FAR the hardest. I have not taken my vfrs forks apart...YET but I can tell by the amount of dive and travel they are not as hard as a with a wing.
My 98 lost a bushing in the front right brake caliper. That clunking over bumps drove me crazy till I found the problem.
Tarrgus, thanks for that, spacers are sitting pretty flush with top of the tubes, I'll make up some spacers and see if that fixes it. Jim thanks, I only fitted the calipers a couple of weeks back and the bushes are all there, but something worth checking
