Anyone have this go bad on them? Recently the bars on my k7 600 have been turning very easily in low speed corners so I started checking the steering and forks. I found quite a bit of vertical play on the body of my damper so I attempted to tighten the retaining bolt and found it to be tight. It appears that the bushing that sits inside the mounting flange is shot and is allowing the damper to move quite a bit (1.5" or so). Just wondering if this is a common issue with these?
Apologies for not being clear, the damper body has roughly 1.5" of vertical play with the bolt tight. I believe the cause of the play is the bearing/bushing that the bolt passes through on the mounting flange that connects the damper assembly to the frame.
The bearing in the center of the damper assy. is a heim (self-aligning) type bearing which allows quite a bit of up and down movement but prevents binding when the handlebars are moved side to side. There should be two plastic washers (SEAL,PILLOWBALL 64339-14101) on the top and bottom of the bearing. If those are missing or worn out the play will increase quite a bit.
Look that part number up on any of the online parts fiche sites and it will show you a parts diagram. It is listed under "Steering Stem".
Linear Mode
