Hey guys, so after a night ride on the old girl.....i noticed that my front suspension was really bouncy. I haven't had the bike for that long and this has been the longest i have ridden ever since acquiring the bike. Well there were some problems and so i am trying to combat this one step at a time. First things first is that when i got the bike back home there was heavy oil build up under the chrome covers on the forks....both sides!!!! At first inspection i thought my engine was leaking oil but it looks like the front forks were leaking so bad that oil splattered all over the bike. Now my question is what do i need to replace/rebuild the front shocks? Can i replace the just the seals and refill the forks up with oil and be on my way? Can i do all this by just removing the wheel, then steel fork cover or do i need to completely take off the front forks? Thanks in advance!
Rick
Leak forks x2!Quick update.... I was out tonite and wanted to do some further inspection and found out that I was able to turn the chrome caps off by hand. I'm not sure if the PO had put them back together like this but should these be that easy to come off? Anyways I'm still going ahead to try to replace the seals anyways since they came off that easily, been going through some threads where people where having a nightmare taking these fork covers off! Anyways still need some advice before making a mess of things :).
Hi guys so I took forks off the bike and am now into the seal replacement phase. The problem I'm having is that the chrome slider won't slide off the top of the fork. It looks like the middle section of the fork is flared out/bigger than the bottom section of the fork. Are the seals inside the chrome slider? I looked inside and can see a lot of gunk and crust , looks like the seal has disintegrated into there. Any one out there who can give me a pointer in this??!!
Thanks Fab60
Yes the seal is inside the chrome piece (I've forgotten which bike you have so the details vary a little) and you have to remove the slider and all the clips and bushes to withdraw the seal holder and seal. Do you know it's leaking or does it just need a top up with oil? G '60 C77 '60 C72 '62 C72 Dream '63 CL72
'61 CB72 '64 CB77 '65 CB160 '66 Matchless 350 '67 CL77 '67 S90 '77 CB400F Hey G-man thanks for the reply. I have the steel bottoms 65 hawk. I thought they were the seals but upon taking them apart i see that both forks have pits all over the forks. I think the pits are trapping the oil and gushing them out. I was hoping that it was a case of bad seals but now I'm feeling hopeless. Im not sure if i can have someone weld/fill in the pitted sections or would it be better to find a used set of forks. What to do???!!!
Fab60
A set of good, used forks is probably safest but do check to see that they are not bent and not pitted like yours. There are people in the UK who will grind them back and hard chrome them to as new dimensions but it's quite expensive. Each leg will probably cost as much you would pay for a good set of forks. http://www.amphardchrome.co.uk/hard-chrome-plating.php G '60 C77 '60 C72 '62 C72 Dream '63 CL72
'61 CB72 '64 CB77 '65 CB160 '66 Matchless 350 '67 CL77 '67 S90 '77 CB400F If I may jump in here, I have just had one front fork tube hard chromed by http://www.pittedforks.co.uk/ they made a lovely job of it and would recomend them BUT it was not cheep including P/P £1.05 for just one tube but like I say they are good at there job.
I did notice my fork tube was of different diameters that is probably why no one makes after market tubes. fab60 you may have more luck in the US getting a pair of tubes than I did here in the UK but do make sure they have no pit marks were the seal makes contact with the tube and are not bent. Alway make notes when dismantling the tubes as they can be a little confusing when you come to rebuild them but then you know that don't you.
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