Front Fork Reinstalled!

Here's the front fork assembly reinstalled into the frame, along with the headlamp bucket. The fork springs are sticking out of the tubes until I place the front tire and fender mount bracket on and am ready to put in the new fork oil.

New parts to note here: polished top fork nut (31 42 1 230 478); rubber front tank support (16 11 1 230 031); upper (31 42 1 230 696) and lower (31 42 2 000 385) rubber headlamp bracket gaskets; chrome turn signal brackets (31 42 1 233 941) and fork boot clamps (07 12 9 952 121). The fork boots themselves were in great shape, just needed a little cleaning.

Headlamp Bracket Spacers

After almost 40 years of wear, the rubber spacers between the bolts, headlamp brackets and bucket were in sad shape. A trip to a local supplier scored me several pieces of 1/16" and 1/8" thick rubber sheeting, which I've been cutting up to use for various parts of the restoration.

For these spacers, I just traced the actual washer, cut the rubber with scissors and cut a hole (no need to be too exact here) in the middle. Looks great and is enough to protect the headlamp bucket from getting scratched!

Steering Head Bearings

Time to reinstall the front fork assembly into the frame. I read a bunch of information regarding this procedure. The important thing (besides the obvious prep cleaning of parts) is to use the proper grease for the top and bottom bearings and the bearing races inside the frame. You need to use a grease that doesn't contain moly, such as Chevron NLG2 Super Duty (this product spec came from Snowbum's article). Personally, I went to my local auto parts store and found their generic brand (Carquest Extreme Pressure Premium Grease), which can be used where any NLG grease is specified. This grease is red in color, just like Chevron's.

With the bearings and races packed with new grease, put the pieces together and you're good to go. Follow your manual for the instructions and torque settings and refer to your disassembly photos if you're not sure where something goes!

Draining the Fork Oil

Following the steps to drain the fork oil is a very simple process, but does require a special tool to loosen loosen the drain plug nut while at the same time using an allen wrench to hold the center (see photo). The fork drain tool is available from Joe's Tools. Loosen the nuts, then look out!

Front Fork Removal

The front wheel and forks were the last items removed from the motorcycle. I kept them as one unit, upright, until I was ready to drain the oil from the forks. When I finally removed the front wheel, I placed the axle back into the forks to keep track of the parts and also hold the forks steady.

I still kept the forks at a slight angle so the oil wouldn't leak out of the top. Then, I removed the two white dust caps at the bottom of the forks and followed the steps in Duane Ausherman's article to drain the oil.

Steering Head Parts

These are the various clamps and rings that hold the top steering bearings in place, in the order they were removed. Taking photos like will save you a lot of time later on. Shop manuals like Clymer's are a must, but they cover lots of bikes in one book and many times parts varied enough to not resemble anything in the illustrations. Or maybe it's just me.

Upper Spring Retainer Nuts

The next step is to remove the two upper spring retainer nuts. For this job, you will need a 36mm socket. Careful, because once you remove these nuts, the tension from the springs inside the forks will push them upward as you loosen them. FYI, the 36mm socket was also used two steps prior to remove the center top fork cap, and can also be used to remove the bottom fork nuts (not usually necessary unless you're rebuilding the fork assemblies).

I don't think there's anything special about the 36mm socket needed, but since I needed a couple of other special tools, I bought one from Joe's Tools.

Front Fork Filler Caps

After removing the handlebars and top fork nut, the two filler caps can be removed. For this, you either need a special tool or you can use two drill bits or allen wrenches in the holes with a lever of some sort between them.

If you happen to have the original toolkit from the bike, you should have one of these wrenches. I ordered a fork cap pin wrench (71 11 1 237 858) from Hucky's. It wasn't very expensive, and it's the easiest way to get it back on tight when reassembling.

Front Fork Studs and Oil

Unless I find anything weird as I'm taking them apart, my intention with the front forks is simply to change the fork oil, clean everything and be done. A great reference for these steps is Duane Ausherman's article.

One interesting thing to note (see photo): as I was dismantling the brackets that hold the front fender in place, two out of the four threaded studs came out with the nuts I was loosening. Some of the stud mounting holes lead directly through to the inside of the fork tube, and when I removed them, oil leaked out. Kind of freaked me out and, in hindsight, I would put the studs back in, even if loosely for now. I ended up simply placing two coffee cans at the bottom of my propped up front fork/wheel assembly and letting some of the oil drain until I properly drained the bulk of it later.

I Fought the Lock and the Lock Won

The fork lock is one of several items you'll need to remove from the frame before it can be powder coated. This is what mine looked like before I attempted to remove it...pretty harmless, huh? The problem, of course, is that I didn't have the key. If you're in the same boat, do yourself a big favor and read Duane Ausherman's article on fork steering lock removal. I didn't know about this article until it was too late, and I'm too ashamed to post the photos of what the lock looked like two days and three drill bits later. It wasn't pretty.