Give it a wallop then?

Time to have a go at rebuilding a fork then! After a few days in the weak spring sunshine to cure the fork outer looks like this. It's not flawless by any means but it's much better than it was and I just need it to be oil tight.

Flawless isn't what I'm aiming for anyway, more good enough for seismic which I feel I've achieved. And I really ought to put grey primer on my shopping list. Anyway, to the garage!

With everything in place it's time to start. I had to remove surface corrosion from a few items with a bit of we and dry ad brake cleaner. The damper rod, spacer and oil seal washer needed attention from rust that had appeared just in the few days that they'd been in my slightly damp garage. I also took the copper washer off the retaining bolt and annealed it instead of replacing it as suggested because LDU. Hopefully there will be no embarrassed puddle tomorrow like a puppy in the kitchen come sunrise...

I followed the Haynes manual but had to refer to the Matt Tries To Do Things video on rebuilding these forks a couple of times. The Haynes manual had a mistake at one step which included replacing a washer that didn't exist but it took a few minutes of head-scratching, looking at the parts I had left and the diagrams in the book to realise that it was wrong, and then confirmed by the online parts diagram and watching Matts video.

The first stumbling block was how to drive in the upper bushing. I'd bought a really good 3D Printed tool off fleabay that was the correct (37mm) size driver but just trying to slide it down with my hands wasn't getting me anywhere, the bushing was a fraction into it's seat but a long way home. Casting around the garage I found some left over downpipe I had from the guttering on the shed that was the exact same size as the top of the red seal driver. So, might was well pop it over the top and give it a wallop then?

That worked well indeed, with both the bushing and the oil seal. Up side down it also helped drive the dust seal home which was fortunate. Both bushing and oil seal got a covering of fork oil before they went in, the circlip got a lick of RG5 to stop it from rusting as badly as the previous one had done and the dust seal got a thin lick of red rubber grease to ease it in and hopefully prevent water getting in further down the road. I know its supposed to be a cheap bike done cheaply, but I might as well make a good job of it whilst its apart...

I filled up the fork with the correct level of oil (117mm) then the fork had to go back into the bike to install the spring, spacer and top cap. Installing the spacer and top cap puts the spring under load so needs the bearing pusher again to get the circlip in. With the retaining bolt torqued up and the threads treated to a lick of threadlock, the fork overhaul itself was finished. That left the cables to routed correctly, the fork set into the correct position in the clamps and the handlebar fitted I could stick the mudguard, wheel and brakes back on.

 

The left fork now looks a lot nicer than the right one, but I'm going to wait and see if it's oil tight before I think about stripping the other side too and giving it new oil and a lick of paint. Those seals weren't exactly at the top end of the price point I had a choice of so I'm not going to bet everything on them being perfect but... we'll see.

So, outstanding items now are:

• Carbs don't work properly
• Front discs are warped
• Some of the electrics are a little precarious
• Bodywork needs a bit of plastic welding

That's not a huge amount. Probably.