Steering Head Parts

These are the various clamps and rings that hold the top steering bearings in place, in the order they were removed. Taking photos like will save you a lot of time later on. Shop manuals like Clymer's are a must, but they cover lots of bikes in one book and many times parts varied enough to not resemble anything in the illustrations. Or maybe it's just me.

Upper Spring Retainer Nuts

The next step is to remove the two upper spring retainer nuts. For this job, you will need a 36mm socket. Careful, because once you remove these nuts, the tension from the springs inside the forks will push them upward as you loosen them. FYI, the 36mm socket was also used two steps prior to remove the center top fork cap, and can also be used to remove the bottom fork nuts (not usually necessary unless you're rebuilding the fork assemblies).

I don't think there's anything special about the 36mm socket needed, but since I needed a couple of other special tools, I bought one from Joe's Tools.

Front Fork Filler Caps

After removing the handlebars and top fork nut, the two filler caps can be removed. For this, you either need a special tool or you can use two drill bits or allen wrenches in the holes with a lever of some sort between them.

If you happen to have the original toolkit from the bike, you should have one of these wrenches. I ordered a fork cap pin wrench (71 11 1 237 858) from Hucky's. It wasn't very expensive, and it's the easiest way to get it back on tight when reassembling.

Front Fork Studs and Oil

Unless I find anything weird as I'm taking them apart, my intention with the front forks is simply to change the fork oil, clean everything and be done. A great reference for these steps is Duane Ausherman's article.

One interesting thing to note (see photo): as I was dismantling the brackets that hold the front fender in place, two out of the four threaded studs came out with the nuts I was loosening. Some of the stud mounting holes lead directly through to the inside of the fork tube, and when I removed them, oil leaked out. Kind of freaked me out and, in hindsight, I would put the studs back in, even if loosely for now. I ended up simply placing two coffee cans at the bottom of my propped up front fork/wheel assembly and letting some of the oil drain until I properly drained the bulk of it later.

Cleaning the Engine

I finally lifted the engine out of the frame. Looks even better off of the bike!

There are many discussion online about how best to clean engine and other parts. Here's my condensed version. I used an engine degreaser sparingly, and only toward the bottom of the engine case where I saw grease or oil. I tried Simple Green Max a bit because some people highly recommend it. It's supposed to stain metal easily, so unless it's summer and you have a way to easily rinse the parts off (and your careful not to get water where it shouldn't go), I'd probably avoid it. To clean between the cylinder fins, I used Luster Lace. It's a great product that comes in long strips, useful for cleaning hard to reach areas and especially for twisting around spokes and such. For broader areas of the engine block and other metal parts, I tend to use Nevr-Dull, a wadding available at many auto parts stores. And for the final polish on most any metal, you can't do better than German Monidur metal polish (available from Hucky's and elsewhere).

Of course, you don't have to use all of these products together or in this order, or at all, just whatever works best for you.