Arctic cat fork disassembly help needed.

[Briggster]

What is the process for disassembling the forks in arctic cat minis? I have a 72 prowler and the forks are very tight. I want to disassemble them and possibly put new liners in. I know there is a spring in there and one bolt at the top of the tube but I'm not sure how that comes apart. A buddy and I are going to try to disassemble it tonight after work. Any help is appreciated! Thanks
Briggster

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Easy. Take the wheel off. Remove the cross bolts at the top of the upper tubes just under the top plate. Those go through the top eye of the internal springs and keeps the forks together. Slide the lower forks out. There's a cross pin through the lower fork tube that just slides through the tube and sits flush. It holds the lower eye of the spring.

I don't recall if you need to remove the plastic trim piece/boot at the bottom to get to the liner. Probably. Be careful not to damage it. Use a block of wood along side the tube to tap against, driving the plastic piece down and off the tube. I think it snaps in a groove so it can be tough.

Removing the plastic liner is tough. They have a lip that snaps inside a groove in the upper tube. The only way to get it out is to curl it inside itself like a roll of wrapping paper, making it smaller to release it from the walls of the upper for tube. It's probably half glued in there with old grease if someone tried lubing it. Thankfully originals were made with a fully split side and from a very tough flexible nylon. Use a sturdy needle nose pliers and tiny flat screwdriver to pry up and get a hold of one corner right along the split. Curl the corner of the liner in on itself like tightening a tube of paper and pull. Eventually you'll get it.

Clean everything and reassemble. Liner, then end caps. You could use a small thin film of white lithium grease on the chrome before sliding the lower fork into the tube but these were mostly dry. They also were pretty sloppy, not tight tolerance. When putting the liners back, make sure you get them up inside so the rim of the liner sits in the internal groove. Make sure you cleaned out that groove.

One other caution. If you purchased new liners and end caps from eBay, be careful. They are not the right kind of plastic. They are brittle and will break if flexed too much.

Feel free to PM me if you have any trouble.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

A couple other tips... Clean the inside of the upper tubes where the liner sits, especially if it was all greasy. You want full room for that liner to expand and make it easier for the next guy to pull them out.

When reassembling the springs, the cross pin in the lower fork tube just sits loose until it's up in the liner holding it together. Be careful when reassembling to keep it in place.

When putting the top spring retainer bolts back in place, you need to slide the lower tube up or down a bit until you feel the bolt go through the spring eye. Once through the eye, you'll know you got it because the lower tube won't slide up or down without some pressure, and should spring back.

Be careful removing the old caps and liners. Treat them as if replacements are not available. Real ones made of the right material are hard time come by. I used a set of replacement caps and liners once and they broke when assembling them. Too brittle. Wasted $50. Ended up using the old ones. They just work better and honestly, never wear out. If you don't have a need to remove the end caps, don't risk it.