Fork Rebuild?

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davidpnorton

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Dec 14, 2010
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I am rebuilding a 73' 850.

Bike is completely apart & I am starting the rebuilding in a few weeks. Polishing & cleaning right now . . .

Anyway, I am looking for a place that will rebuild my front forks for me. My tubes are pretty pitted under the gators & I want to replace them and while I am at it, it probably would make sense to do new dampening rods & seals/gaskets.

Does anyone know a shop that rebuilds?

I'd like to ship them somewhere & have them come back done. I've got enough on my plate with everything else.

thanks
 
I would be able to rebuild them for you. New tubes are around $100, plus bushings and seals.The lansdown kit is a very nice upgrade. What are you all looking for when they are done?
 
Hey thanks for the replies guys.

As much as I'd like the lansdowne kit - i dont think i need that much of an upgrade.

At the end of the day I just want to make sure they're up to snuff, functioning properly, and of course - looking nice.

bwolfie, really just looking for the above. I want the bike back on the road in the spring & I have enough on my plate & I am not confident in ripping in to them on my own. Like is says above, I do not need crazy performance, just good function, reliability & new tubes!
 
Easy enough. The forks are pretty simple. Not too many parts involved. Bushings, seals, tubes and see what else creeps up once their open. Possibly top caps on the dampenrer tubes, and do the dampener hole modificatoion. Do you want the legs polished or powdercoated. I chopped the ears off of mine, de chromed them and powdered them gloss black. They turned out really nice. I was running a dunstall fender on mine, so I didn't need the ears.
 
The originals are insane performance. The Landsdowne mearly brings the front end back to sanity. :wink:
 
Mine never worked right. But I did them before I knew all of the tricks and mods. Plus I did mine on a tight budget. The tubes I got were too small on the inside and the springs bound up. It was a mess. I finally got them working ok, but as can be seen by my avatar photo, went with something a little more modern.
 
Where are you located? It may help in finding an easy cheap way to get things done. Not to take away from anyone, but rebuilding the forks is really an easy task, just a bit time consuming as everything seems to be, but if you just take your time you could realistically have them done in a few evenings of messing around. They are pretty straight forward and if you have a manual it is even easier.
 
The hardest part is cleaning up the mess.... That is if the oil seal retainer comes off easily.....and MAP Gas torch makes easy work of that.
 
You can fix a stock front end with just a good pair of seals and some Dampener caps if your bushings and legs are good. about 60.00 in parts. See my site for options.
 
How much do the parts needed for a fork rebuild add up to? Balance that against the cost of the Lansdowne Kit. The forks will have to be stripped completely in any case. It might be more expensive, but you are getting a superior piece of kit and most people who have the kit are happy they went that extra yard.

I would not want to go back to the stock damping simply because it is sub-standard. All that rebuild work simply so the forks can top out and clang on full extension, dive dangerously under emergency braking and give a choppy, uncomfortable ride on a bumpy road. Would you go for Avon Roadriders or the original Avon Roadrunners? Would you choose electronic ignition and a Podtronics rec/reg or keep the points and Zener? It's that sort of a choice.
 
Well the after market kits do not include New legs, bushings, seals. So if you assume that all of that is OK to use the cost of rebuilding is the seals, the Dampner caps, sealing washers, gators if the small type.
Stock parts from the U.S. from (useing Old Brits) the caps are 21.51 each, seals are 4.10 each, seal washers .39 each, small gators 14.60 each. So eighty two dollars and some shipping and some fork oil.
Now if you just got the leak proof seals and the AMCO 15 caps from me it's 60.00 including shipping. You still need fork oil,Gator's maybe and sealing washer's maybe.
By far the worst part of the job is cleaning the gook out it takes about as long as all the other work. Say three hours total for some one with base skills.
My dampener kit total 80.00 shipped the AMCO15caps are 30.00 shipped and the leak proofs 30.00 shipped. So for the major pieces 140.00 Do what you like you will any way.
 
I wouldn't suggest a new bike owner go all out on upgrades, but instead do the maintenance required to get to know the bike. Ride it, work on it and get to know it well, then start spending foolish money on bling.
 
ludwig said:
If you have access to a lathe and like tinkering you could make something like this for almost nothing :
Fork Rebuild?

Fork Rebuild?

This way you get progressive compression damping : when hitting a sharp bump , the valve opens more to allow more flow .
The damper rod is an anodised tube with threaded inserts both ends .
With a litle calculating you make the length so that the piston closes the holes in the damper tube when compressing to get a more effective hydraulic stop .
Small ball valve is to close off rebound oil escape hole ( in damper cap ) when compressing .
Tune it on the bench using one slider and damper . (messy business ..)
Click to expand...

looks like you should make some kits lol
but for real has anyone had a problem getting the steel ring on the bottom of the tube off not the circle clip the guide sleve . everything i read after i pull the circle clip it should slide off ?
 
It has been several years since I rebuilt mine, but I don't recall anything being difficult to dismantle.
 
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