KB fork brace

[kreaky]

I am still in the process of going over my recently acquired '98 C10. It has a KB fork brace fitted and when I checked the mounting bolts, two of them were barely finger tight, the other two were just snug. What is the proper torque for these bolts?  Thanks.

[T Cro ®]

General torque value for an 8 mm bolt would be 10 to 13 foot pounds which in layman terms would be just past snug.... Watch for fork sticking before and after snugging up the bolts; lightly bounce the front end with brake applied to feel if the forks feel free. Make sure that the threads are free running with no burs as that can really throw off the tightening value; might even want to add a few drops of Blue Loctite to the threads beforehand to both lube then and then keep them from loosening up again.

[kreaky]

Thanks for the good info Tony. That's what I was concerned with, how the fork action would be affected by the screw torque. I'll follow your advice.

[Nosmo]

As usual, T-Cro is pretty darn close.  According to the old instruction page I have, you should do an initial install with the bolts at 8 ft-lbs, be sure all is lined up and the forks move freely, tighten to 16 ft-lbs, recheck the forks for freedom, remove the bolts, apply Loctite 242 (blue) and final tighten to 16 ft-lbs.

[kreaky]

Took the brace off, cleaned up the threads on both the screws and the brace itself, scrubbed everything clean. Cleaned the area at the top of the tubes where the brace fits and reinstalled it. After several experimental tries, I am getting stiction when I get up to 10 ft-lbs. So, put a drop of blue Loctite on the screws and installed them to 8 ft-lbs, seems OK.  Thanks all for the advice.   

[T Cro ®]

Ok so here is where a little fine tuning can help get rid of stiction and allow you to get those bolts a little tighter which will help make the forks a more rigid and singular unit. Try this first; with the front end off the ground loosen up all the hardware that secures the front wheel into place so that the axle is free to float; now re-tighten up the fork brace to 10 to 16 foot pounds and finish up with re-tightening of the axle pinch bolts etc. Do you still have any stiction? If yes proceed; this namely applies to the older bikes with the sand cast lower forks but will work on all. First off you need to find out if the clamping action is what's causing the stiction, drawing or pushing action. Start off by the tightening of just one clamp at a time to see if the clamping action is putting the squeeze on the tube and causing the binding; this is usually not the case. The next step would be to clamp one side into place and then look for a gap between the brace and the tube on the other fork; you can measure this with a feeler gauge. If you are getting a gap here you can close up that gap with some shim material which could be done by robbing your set, buying some loose feeler gauge replacements or the good old BEER CAN shim as suggested/recommended by both Murph and KB himself. Finding out where the binding is coming from and working it out is the key to making the fork brace and fork work with each other and really makes the difference.