Hey gang. Im gonna embark on a new adventure of mounting a steering damper to a frame that will need drilled. Its a steel frame, from a YZF600... Any tips?? Also, whats the easiets/best way to mount the thing to the frame? How do I get a bolt or whatever to hold to the frame, since I cant get on the inside to use a bolt. Thanks guys.
They make something just for that, I think they are valled Riv-Nuts. After the frame is drilled to the proper spec, these are tapped into the hole, and expand as you thread the bolt into them. I think it is kind of like the plastic anchors you use to hang stuff on the wall.
Dont' use Riv-nuts for a steering damper anchor point on that bike! YZFs have basically a sheet steel frame and if you have the riv-nut thru just the outter wall you are creating a single sheer connection that is very weak. If you crash the damper will get jammed so hard that it will distort the metal around the riv-nut and/or tear it out. A better way is to fabricate some sort of bracket that you can bolt to an existing threaded mount point. If not, at least drill all the way thru both sides of the frame and use a long bolt to go thru both, so it is braced and supported.
This is what I would do! I would drill a hole where you want the mount to be. Then I would take a nut that is the thread size for the bolt you want to use...and I would have that welded into place over the drilled hole. That way you have a good solid mount and if for some strange reason the nut became stripped out due to cross threading or a crash...then you could grind the welds away and reweld a new nut back in place.
It's been a long time since my YZF, but I think we used to find a set of holes on the under side of the frame, and use an L-bracket for the heim joint mounting point.
