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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Disassembling Forks

 I dove into the Forks today to see how much I could clean up and what I would need to fix or replace.
as you can see in the photos they were pretty neglected by the PO. Not surprising as was everything else.  Its a must to put in new seals the biggest problem will be getting the old ones out.  After removing the sludge that was supposed to be oil in each fork via a convenient drain plug in the bottom (something the new bikes don't have) I was able to remove the top caps and take out the springs, damping rods and bottoming springs. That's where it all STOPS. There is an inner cartridge (hence the name Cartridge forks, KYB) that I will have to build a special tool for to remove. Now building the tool or tools is not that big of a deal, I have had to build many in the past and have already figured out what I need. The problem I have with the situation is I want to know what part should be removed first so that I don't mess something up in the process.  I don't have a service book and can't find a free download online anywhere.  Yea, I can find one on ebay but I'm on a really tight budget right now and besides then I would have to wait for shipping.  It looks as if not only am I going to have to wait for shipping but I'm gonna have to wait for the finances to get a book too.  We will see if I have the patience to wait for it or if I just build the tools and try not to break it.
 
I suppose I will have more willpower to wait since I can't buy the seals right now anyway and I don't think I have enough fork oil in stock to finish either.


Here they are cleaned up and waiting the next move. The lower fork legs are pretty rough, very serviceable but not pretty, I'm not sure how to go about making them look better. I have seen painted fork legs and they look okay for a while. We will see what happens in the future for the forks, Stay Tuned.


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