What's up with these forks?

[Devilman]

4 minutes ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

What steering stem is in the yoke in the 88 front end.?

and the 600 wheel can be used with a 1200 swinger with the right spacers

It's still sitting with the 88 750J stem in it currently.

Any ideas offhand of the difference in width required? or shall I start trawling parts fische's to try and figure out the difference in spacers between 600 and 1200?

Cheers again Fbob 

[TonyGee]

1 hour ago, Devilman said:

Yep, this bike had quite a list of terrible engineering decisions, fortunately I chose to rip into it before riding it

They had fitted a Banana arm but their choice for "bearing" after chopping down the pivot width, was to wrap a valve spring in alu tape and shove it into the swinger 

people who sell bikes in such a dangerous condition should be hanged, drawn and quartered  

[TonyGee]

you can use the B6 wheel and spacers in a B12 swinger. 

[Devilman]

2 minutes ago, TonyGee said:

you can use the B6 wheel and spacers in a B12 swinger. 

I must confess I had not bothered to check if the distance between the arms was the same on the 600 and the 1200, I had just kinda assumed the 1200 arm was probably a bit wider at the back

Thanks for the info 

[Devilman]

So I figure it's about time I stripped these forks down and see what's missing / damaged / needs replacing.

Is there any decent guide to stripping / rebuilding USDs? I've not much experience with working on them myself, mostly done RWU stuff.

Is it good practice to replace all seals / orings / bushes when working on these, or only replace bushes if they have excess wear?

I presume none of the spacers / snap-rings require replacing unless they are obviously damaged?

Cheers all 

[Jaydee]

On 4/30/2022 at 8:33 PM, Joseph said:

Slingshot 750 L,M and 1100 L,M and N forks are the only usd forks to have that small square tab (pictured above) for holding the speedo drive. That tab was beefed up to 3 times wider on 93 onwards usd forks that use a speedo drive.

[Devilman]

8 hours ago, Jaydee said:

Slingshot 750 L,M and 1100 L,M and N forks are the only usd forks to have that small square tab (pictured above) for holding the speedo drive. That tab was beefed up to 3 times wider on 93 onwards usd forks that use a speedo drive.

Yup, I was able to successfully identify the forks earlier with the help of others and some pics from FBB as 750L/M, since they have the separate seal carrier.

Now I'm at the stage where I'm going to strip them down and find out what parts are missing / damaged and try to replace... Might have to keep an eye on Eblag for any bent / damaged ones with the top adjusters still in good nick.

[Devilman]

So I decided to pop the top caps off the forks to see if anything looked amiss....

The left fork (the one that has slack in it) certainly looks different to the right, but to be honest I am unsure what part(s) may be missing.

 

The Right fork (which has the mullered / displaced adjuster) seems to have a whole different thing going on...



Any idea how to get to the locknut to remove the top cap / adjuster? 

 

For reference here is the parts fiche for the 750L forks... Anyone know what might be missing / damaged in mine from the pics?

 

[Jaydee]

4 hours ago, Devilman said:

So I decided to pop the top caps off the forks to see if anything looked amiss....

The left fork (the one that has slack in it) certainly looks different to the right, but to be honest I am unsure what part(s) may be missing.

 

Can you see the preload adjuster in the fork top? When you opened the fork, you must have kept twisting the fork top till the preload adjuster screwed right out of the fork top!!! Now twist is back clockwise till it screws right back up the fork top. You have to compress the fork spacer tube to gain access to a 14mm damp rod nut so you can unbolt the fork top and remove the spring.

[Jaydee]

4 hours ago, Devilman said:

Any idea how to get to the locknut to remove the top cap / adjuster? 

You need to make a tool to compress the tube spacer. I'll be rebuilding some similar forks and can take some pics, well better pics than the one below.

[Devilman]

2 hours ago, Jaydee said:

Can you see the preload adjuster in the fork top? When you opened the fork, you must have kept twisting the fork top till the preload adjuster screwed right out of the fork top!!! Now twist is back clockwise till it screws right back up the fork top. You have to compress the fork spacer tube to gain access to a 14mm damp rod nut so you can unbolt the fork top and remove the spring.

The forks were already in this sorry state when I got them, I just opened them up as I'm pretty sure something is missing or disconnected on the fork with the slack in, but the other fork has a damaged top adjuster also. I ended up punting for one of those cheaper "Laser" fork spring compressor so I can get the top adjuster / cap assembly removed and disassembled to see what's wrong.

Pics are always welcome, Cheers

[Devilman]

Well, I cobbled something together with a couple bits of metal tube, an extension bar and a garden fork that did the trick 

(Yes I have a carpeted garage, don't laugh )

The inside of these forks is disgusting, the oil was grey and smelt awful.. the amount of sludge and crap on the damper assembly and in the tube makes me think they've never had an oil change in their life! - Which is slightly strange as they do show marks inside from having had someone in there before (spanner marks on the adjuster by the locknut)

Is there anything inside the damper assembly that can be damaged with a flush out of say, degreaser (gunk) or even brake cleaner?

With regard to bushings, seals etc.. best to go OE Suzuki or are aftermarket stuff fine?

Any recommendations on oil? Do people generally still run the stock 10w?  (I'm a fairly light chap at barely 10stone if that has any baring on things)

Cheers all

[Captain Chaos]

Nice fork compressor you made, Afro-Engineering at its best

Clean everything very well with brake cleaner. Original Suzuki fork seals are best, but if everything is in good condition (no scratches on the chrome) Ariete seals are just as good and much cheaper.

 

[TonyGee]

yes, defo use OEM fork seals  

[Devilman]

The dust seals are shockingly expensive from suzuki, which is a shame as they appear to be shot too

Rigged up an improvised "lathe" with water feed for some "Wet and Dry action" to get them polished up nice

[Jaydee]

This is the fork spring compressor I put together. Don't need to shim the 14mm nut taking off the fork top. Great having both hands free as the spring is compressed.