1973 DT3

I'm missing something on removing the steering damper? I removed the bolt ( that seems to secure it to the steering head, it looks like just a short splined shaft holding it  in the diagram. I've wiggled and tapped on the damper about as a hard as I am comfortable doing.  Someone had removed or attempted to remove the bolt before, I was lucky to get out with an impact driver,

It can be buggered up inside there. Doesn't take much to hang it up. Careful surgery may be required. I've removed the entire front end to get one out. I was also dealing with other issues so the front end needed to come off anyway.

What did the screw you removed look like?  It should have had a few threads near the head and then a length of smaller diameter section with no threads.  I've seen the screw break somehow...  the short threaded part comes out and the "pin" stays in there.

So with "Its installed from the factory, so I has to be there" take on the damper... Any of you feel its really needed?
Sneezles61

"So with "Its installed from the factory, so I has to be there" take on the damper... Any of you feel its really needed?"

I've had conversations with an engineer who worked at a motorcycle manufacturer for many years...  he said it's a "band aid" if used for correcting steering instability/vibration...  just shifts/masks the design or loading issue. 

Might have some use off road to absorb shock.  I've never noticed a difference with or without on one of these old bikes.

That is exactly what happened. After reflection I recalled that I had ordered that bolt off of Ebay, I finally located it in the vast collection of ebay parts I have to put this bike back together, it was clear what happened after seeing the new bolt. I bet the remaing part will spin if I try to drill it.

I've never put an aftermarket damper on a bike, my KTM 790 has one from the factory, I don't think it does much, I doubt the one on the yamaha does much of anything at all, but yeah, it has one so I would to keep it , which is not a problem since I can't get it off.

Had one break off the extension bit in one of my bikes many years ago but was lucky enough to have it come out when setting it up verticaly & giving it a good talking to. On that one i tapped a thread in the damper [hard matterial] & must've drilled the few turns of thread out of the lower tripple. Actualy i think i just tapped it right through just continuing from the short tripple yoke thread so allen screw would need to find the thread start in the damper. Whatever, it worked & plan was to take 'Any' sloppy movement out of it--which it did. Experimented with oil viscosity a litte but made it too heavy for the road. Might've been good in MX though.

I managed to get the offending bolt part out using a combination RT325's experiences. I drilled down and when the drill started getting wobbly I figured I was approaching the hole in the spline, The steering stem was already out so it was no problem to turn it to the vertical and attempt to coax it out. It took about 15 minutes of persuasion for it to get where I could grasp it.  Didn't damage the threads too much, they cleaned up with a tap enough for the  new bolt to go in..