Fork sliders hand made Modification

Finally today I finished polishing the sliders which I modified to accommodate two calipers ap lockheed racing.
Used them on a dunstallizer commando cafe racer I'm preparing the selecter and parts used in the years to come (I still have to finish my black knight fastback retro).
Used them on a dual disc triumph hub on front and always on a triumph hub with disc on the rear, both with borrani rims 19 x 40 x185.
Use hubs triumph has not been easy, I had to modify them to align them (from originals are too large for norton forks).
The biggest problem was the rear hub off axis to the commando and I must rebuild speedoo gear box because the original Smith was outsized.
Photos of the wheels I will publish later, i have to polish them.
Hi all.
Piero

I modified one for my 6 piston caliper project, and after modifying I checked it for straigtness, it had bent considerably during welding, it would not accept the stanchion with bushings, this didnt matter to me as my
slider was only being used for mold making,

I'm not good enough to measure and fit like yoose guys so I took whole fork to welder with whole brake system and wheel/disc mounted and caliper bolted to its new mount, then clamped caliper on rotor by master cylinder lever tied back so no question it was true on the rotor, then welded the mount to slider and it worked out right. Then the fun tedium of making it shiny and nice again, though maybe not as nice as the views above. Nice skeletal mounts to make strangers grin.

The sliders are good and the stanchions that the bushes.
I'm not an experienced welder but an amateur, maybe I was lucky.
Ciao
Piero

yes very lucky? maybe your sliders internal bore was worn enough to allow for any distortion from welding,
it only takes the smallest amount of heat by welding and the slider will distort, it only has to distort .001' TO .002" and its rendered useless, anyone knows that welding on one side of a tube will distort the tube by making it out of round or bent regardless if you put the tube in a jig or have it all clamped up by the pressurized caliper/axle etc. yes u are very lucky.........

But even in the event of a distortion, that won't be too severe, you can adjust the Interior and get it back straight and usable, or you do not Think that rectified solves the problem of stanchions rolling?
Ciao
Piero

On my P!! in '74 I didn't get front drum brake stay tight so one day screaming down a freeway exit ramp I touched lever for a loud WHACK then warm fluid on my pants to see brake had spun and fractured slider completely in half with a diagonally oriented crack. i took to a welder that put ugly keyloid scar bead all the way around it and it worked just as good as new again. Spun drum also broke cable so didn't lock up front going 70's. Implies not that lucky distortion wise to weld on sliders. Peel's one sided weld for new mount didn't interfere with smooth operation either, thank goodness. Peel's fork clearances were tight enough that thin power steering fluid gave best feel. Stock Trixie needed 20/50 grade to work best. We read one report here of fella's distorted swing arm just by welding back the front chain guard fastener fitting, so maybe steel tube more touchy than Al tube? With upgraded dual brakes one will have to be rather careful in panic pull downs. Hardest scarest thing for me to practice is best braking yet likely the most important skill to get practice on dry, wet and loose stuff, down hill.

Back in the '80s I had occasion to correct some distortion in modified Commando sliders, and found a solution that worked well for me. I took the sliders to a local machine shop with a Sunnen honing machine, and had them hone the slider bores with a long hone until they were uniformly round and straight. The larger diameter that resulted didn't cause any issues with the fit of the slider at the top because the bushing hadn't changed, but it did make the bushing at the bottom of the stanchion too loose. I corrected that with a technique I picked up from Jim Schmidt. I turned a wide groove in the bushing to allow me to fit the split Teflon/bronze fork bushings from a Suzuki. I turned the groove deep enough to leave space for brass shims between the Suzuki bushing and the Norton bushing, allowing me to tailor the diameter with different brass shim thicknesses. Wish I had some pictures to post, but those forks are long gone now, sold with one of the bikes.

Ken

Hi Ken,
Please, post the photos, i am very interesting to see any modifications.
Ciao
Piero

pierodn said:

Hi Ken,
Please, post the photos, i am very interesting to see any modifications.
Ciao
Piero

Click to expand...

My apologies if I wasn't clear, but what I said was that I don't have any photos of the mod. I know that some other Norton owners have done the same modification, so maybe someone else had pictures. I originally got the idea from Jim Schmidt, who did the mod on a set of forks that he used on his Monoshock Norton, which I later bought. I replaced them later with some larger Forcelle Italia forks, and returned the originals to Jim. It's possible he has some pictures. I'll send him an email and see if I can find some to post.

Ken

Sorry Ken,
I had not understood well, you wish to post, not you would have post.
Sorry for my bed english.
Ciao.
Piero

Va bene, Piero. You're English is better than my Italian.

I've sent Jim an email to see if he has any pictures.

Ken

Thanks Ken

Jim doesn't have any pictures either, but he did send this info.

"I don't have photos but the suzuki part # is 51121-49510

the diameter of the cut is 1.418"

cut the largest diameter of the original steel bushing down to 1.480"

its in the JS race manual available at JS motorsport.com

Its easier to use the turkite fork bushings also available at jsmotorsport.com"

Ken

About the two my sliders are straight after welding.
I welded also another slider (the pinch bolt side) to put the attacks as the original ones for the second disc (I shot the original caliper cutting pliers and welding them attacks from the other side): this slider seemed perfectly straight but the stanchion with the bush found hard to scroll into.
I turned the inside slider (there wasn't much to remove, just a clean) and now it works perfectly in axis.
I do not understand the concern of many riders on the subject, saying that the slider is too becomes twisted, I think the slider after a weld you can slightly change internally, but enough or a turning or milling to put everything back in place.
What do you think about?
ciao
Piero

Sounds reasonable Pierodn, I know other makes [of similar construction] have worked successfully after welding such as yours.