XJ650 Seca Front fork noise with progressive springs install

Previous owner installed progressive front fork springs. A piece of steel tubing approximately 2 1/2 inches long is installed on top of each spring to put a certain amount of preload on the spring.
When I hit a speed bump or a hole in the road, A fairly loud noise occurs both on retraction and extension of the forks.
I have taken the forks apart and can find nothing missing, broken or out of place.
The forks seem to work ok other than the noises.
Has anyone else experienced this and do you have a cure for the aggravating "clunk" noises.
Thanks, Jack

 

Hey all you experts. Someone must have heard these noises before. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks, Jack

 

Try replacing your preload spacers with ones made from PVC pipe instead of steel and see what happens. Progressive themselves provide a length of PVC pipe with their spring kits for those requiring preload spacers.

It's the only thing I can think of.

 

Can you post a video clip or audio clip? What weight oil are you using

 

Re: XJ650 Seca Front fork noise with progressive springs ins

+1 for BigFitz reply - even the Progressive Suspension site says to use a length of PVC pipe as a preload spacer in their downloadable directions.

 

Re: XJ650 Seca Front fork noise with progressive springs ins

Make sure that all the fasteners holding the tubes to the upper and lower crown brackets are tight, and make sure there's not a problem with the steering head bearings, either.......

As long as the "spacer" is actually pre-loaded, it shouldn't be the cause of any clunks or noise (factory fork systems that use pre-load spacers also use a thin-wall metal tube as the spacer). Note that in such systems, the top of the spring has a metal "washer" or spacer "seat" to prevent the "spacer" from actually contacting/sliding over/etc. the top of the spring.

 

I would bet you will find the clunk/clack resides in the lower portion of the forks. It sounded a lot like brake pad slap. (but it was definately in the forks) Have someone sit on the bike and compress/release the forks hard with the front brake held. Listen with a hose or stethoscope to better locate the noise. I never noticed any problems but it sure was annoying.