General Telescopic Fork Question

[GRRR8!]

I have recently noticed a metallic "ringing" sound emanating from the front end of my Suzuki DRZ400S, I did recently have a shop replace the springs to go to a heavier rate.
I narrowed down the noise to be coming from the inside, top, of the right fork tube.
Question: Can I pop of the fork cap to inspect inside, with the bike on a jack without disassembling everything or will the spring pop out accompanied by fork oil?
I have never messed with fork internals before...

 

[hemibee]

It's been a few years since I went into a fork but it I remember correctly you will probably have spring tension under the cap but it shouldn't be too bad. I would be surprised if you had any oil pressure with the bike off the front suspension.

I could be wrong but that is what I seem to remember.

 

[shanered6]

Yes your spot on hemi ....I have had this my self once on my xr600 and it turned out to be the fork spring had gripped the cap when it was Screwed back on and was trying to straitened its self out when the forks were getting compressed .
So I just found a small washer to fit between the spring and the cap , but if you do it on one you will have to do both to equilise them.

 

[GRRR8!]

Thanks for the replies guys! I think what I have, is a fork spring rattling inside the tube with engine vibration. I saw a couple of threads in Thumper Talk with folks having the same issue after switching to different springs. When I get some more time, I'm going to see if I can disassemble and reposition the spring.

 

[hemibee]

Good luck, hopefully you will find repositioning is the fix.

 

[Village Idiot]

If repositioning it doesn't work, you could try a small spacer made from PVC tubing of the correct diameter. If it'll fit in there, a wee bit of tension added to the spring might be all you need. Oddly enough, some aftermarket spring manufacturers supply them with their springs and they can be cut to length. That's how the ones I got from Progressive, for my old /6 Beemer came.

From the "vast wasteland" of the "village idiot's" brain: Jim

 

[hemibee]

If forgot about the PVC spacers. We used to do that for our Hare Scramble bikes.

 

[NORTY]

Yup, PVC. Call it "preload!"

 

[NORTY]

Also, check your fork oil level...

 

[Tmod]

Yes I know this thread is reasonably old but just a tip for those that use Race Tech springs as they have a fairly rough finish on them from the blasting process and they will tend to scrape against the inside of the fork tube and sometimes the dimensions will not match exactly that of OEM and it will usually be the slightly smaller OD springs that you will get the most noise from.

Take a bucket of hot soapy water and using a 320-400 grit wet n dry polish the OD of the spring and then thoroughly clean after and you should get minimum noise from that point forward.

Terry