I previously removed the steering components (controls, handlebars, steering damper assembly). Now it’s time to remove the front suspension which includes the front fender, front wheel, front fender brace, front forks and the steering stem.

Remove Front Wheel and Front Fender

NOTE:
I chose to remove the front fender with the wheel in place as I wanted to get the fender to the painter. But it’s easier with less opportunity to scrape the paint on the fender if you remove the wheel first, and I recommend removing the wheel, then the fender. I’ll present this in that order, but the pictures will show the fender missing when I remove the wheel.

The axle is secured with a nut and washer on the left side. There are two axle pinch bolts on each fork tube that keep the axle from spinning. There is a hole in the right side of the axle you can insert a screw driver or the rod supplied with the tool kit to keep the axle from spinning when you remove the axle nut, but with the pinch bolts tight, you shouldn’t need to do that.

After I get the axle nut off and the pinch bolts are loosened (in my case, I removed them since I’m disassembling everything), I use a screw drive and insert it into the hole on the right end of the axle to draw it out.

The “top hat” insert that fits into the dust seal of the left wheel bearing can come out, which mine does, so remember to insert it back into the hole before you install the axle.

There is a steel sleeve that acts as a spacer that goes on the right end of the axle next to the threads. I put it on the axle with the axle nut so it doesn’t get lost.

The fender is secured to the fork brace with four carriage bolts and acorn nuts. I remove them.

Under the acorn nut is a flat washer that sits on top of a rubber grommet that protects the paint on the fender. The rubber can stick to the fender and the washer, as mine did, so I use a small screw driver to gently pry the rubber grommet off fender and not scratch the paint.

The carriage bolts fit inside the fender brace in the inside set of square holes.

Remove Fork Brace

This bike has the stock BMW fender brace the fender mounts to–with the mud on it in the picture below–and a San Jose BMW aftermarket fork brace that fits around it.

I pull the rubber dust covers up the fork tubes.

The fork braces are secured to the fork sliders with four Allen bolts, washers and lock nuts that I remove.

I slide the fork braces down the fork sliders to remove them. They are pretty tight so I use a rubber mallet to remove the stock fork brace from inside the San Jose fork brace.

Remove Front Forks

I drain the forks, remove the fork sliders and then remove the fork tubes with the damping rods still installed. I’ll pull out the damping rods when I rebuild the front forks.

Drain Forks

There is a fill hole under the top black plastic vanity cover and a drain hole on the bottom of the fork slider. I use a screw driver to pry the vanity cap off.

Then I remove the Allen bolt that is in the fork oil filler hole.

The bottom of the fork has a large Allen bolt that secures the damper rod to the fork slider and a smaller Allen bolt with crush washer that is the fork oil drain. I remove the smaller bolt and drain the oil.

Remove Fork Sliders

I use an electric impact driver to remove the large Allen bolt with copper crush washer from the bottom of the fork slider.

The damper rod is exposed. There is an aluminum bumper in the bottom of the fork slider, so be sure to remove that from the fork slider so it doesn’t get lost.

The bottom of the fork slider has a snap ring that secures the metal plug in the bottom. I don’t remove it.

Remove Fork Tubes

The fork tubes are secured with a large nut to the top fork plate and with a pinch bolt in the bottom fork triple clamp.

I use a special 36 mm socket to remove the top nut. The face of the socket has been ground flat as the top nut is thin and the taper in a standard 36 mm socket will not engage the nut fully and you will round it off when you try to remove it.

I like to use my air impact wrench to remove these nuts. They are torqued to 75-80 FT-Lbs and the impact wrench gets them out without damaging them.

NOTE:
if you push the forks to the stop and then use a socket wrench to remove the nuts, you will deform the lower fork triple clamp which causes the forks to be out of alignment. That results in higher “sticktion” and a rougher ride.

There is a piece of PVC plastic pipe acting as a spacer to adjust front fork sag installed by a previous owner. Unexpectedly, I find an aftermarket adjustable fork spring inside that has two springs, a longer lower spring and shorter upper spring, with a threaded adjuster between them.

The last thing to remove is the pinch bolt on the fork triple clamp. I remove the Allen pinch bolt and use a large blade screw driver to spread the halves of the fork tube clamp to make it easy to slide the tube down and out of the fork lower triple clamp. I tap the screw driver gently into the slot to spread the clamp. If you pound hard on the screw driver you can damage the clamp which is made out of aluminum. Also, the fork tube may slide out under its own weight when you tap the screw driver so hang on to it so it doesn’t fall out, hit the floor and dent the bottom edge of the fork tube {Don’t ask me how I know this 🙂 }

Remove Steering Stem & Fork Top Plate

The steering stem fits inside the steering head on the frame. It is secured by a large acorn nut in the center of the fork top plate. I remove it with a breaker bar, but I could have used the air impact wrench to remove it as I did for the fork top nuts. Once the acorn nut is removed, the fork top plate comes off.

I use the hook spanner in the bike tool kit to remove the slotted steering head bearing preload nut. When the nut comes off, I can remove the chrome vanity cover over the top steering head tapered roller bearing. It’s very grimy.

I use a plastic mallet and to strike the steering stem so I can remove it from the steering head. Again, to prevent damage to the fork lower triple clamp if it crashes to the floor, I hang on to it while tapping it out of the steering head.

NOTE:
I didn’t remove the top roller bearing first. It’s a press fit on the stem and comes off when I drive the stem downward.

I put the top tapered roller bearing on the stem to show it’s location.

Here is the front of the bike now that all the front end parts have been removed.

Revisions

2019-11-27  Edits and typos.
2022-01-02  Correct typos.