Wheels and Front Forks



Wheels and Front Forks

Old

This is how the bike came to me. The front fender and wheel look great until I could see only one wheel weight and that didn't look right. It had a C.W.C. sticker on the rim which does not instill a lot of confidence. However, it seems to be good as I can see it has not been fooled with much at all. C.W.C. stands for Central Wheel Company in England. Even the sticker on the rim is not straight. The tire was old and dry rotten. I ended up balancing the wheel and put new rubber on it. I went through the bearings and brake plate. In addition, I had the cycle boys here put Ride On inside the tube to insure no flats. If you do get a puncture with this stuff change the tube and the tire is probably still good if just a nail.


Front

Here is a picture of the rear wheel. It was in good shape. The tire is a new LaserTec.


Old

The right tools help. If the stanchion is stuck in the top lug and there is no service tool 61-3824 then sometimes the cap nut can be threaded in leaving a few threads unscrewed and tapping the cap nut working the stanchion out gently. Use a piece of leather over the nut so the nut is not ruined. Don't use a heavy hand doing this or find a tool. Make sure the middle lug slot is expanded as seen further down the page.


Tool



Look what I found. The black plastic damping sleeve was broken and cracked. The thicker part goes down. The part Number is 97-1896. These need to be fitted with the thick end facing down. The bearing nut was destroyed. The right tool 60-0220 did not move the nut. An engineering shop had to use some special tools and heat to get it loose without ruining the lower bush or stanchion. The nut does not have to be that tight. Use the special tool and some blue locktite and put the tool on the nut ensuring it is a good fit then rap it a couple times with the side of a hammer.


Nut

Per Mr John Healy at BritBike the damper sleeve serves two purposes: "The thick end actually works with the damper holes drilled in the fork tube to provide damping. It also keeps the lower leg from going to full extension when you lift the front wheel off the ground (ex. doing a wheel stand). If it does go to full extension it could create a dangerous situation."


Incidentally, Mr Healy does supply stanchions to his distributors and indicated: "what the factory did was to counter bore the threads at the end of the fork tube about 1/8in. This allows the nut to screw in all the way and hold the bush in place. Emgo forgot the counter bore." So...be careful if you use Emgo tubes. Make sure the nut seats all the way. When you get a bike make sure it is roadworthy right away. It is hard to take apart and rebuild but it really matters. Do not drive a bike with the problems I found. Use the service manual and go through it all including the specs.


Got the new nut today. Boy, that is an expensive part!


693



There were problems throughout even on the surface it looked good. The springs had lost length. I am replacing them with progressive springs. The sintered bearings look good from here. They actually fit well. The fork legs were not too far from new. Everything else in the fork legs was fine.

631


There were two different type of seals. One leakproof (very good seals - better than the originals, IMO). Looking at it I assume he did not know how to get the original seals out of the dust excluder nuts. It can be a difficult job if you don't know how. A punch preferably with a raised edge through the slot can get it out with a hammer blow. He also used two different diameter O rings. Huh?


Old


Looking at the diagram, a washer can be seen between the spring and the seal. The correct washer is the large one shown in the next picture (H1656). Only one leg had that washer. The small washer shown in the that picture was substituted in the other leg and it is not useable as such, it will destroy the seal. It is supposed to be under the O ring and the bush, well below the seal. That part (H431) was not in either leg in the right position. The Leak Proof part number is available.


Old

It would definitely be good to get the rust and whatever out of the threads carefully to paint them after assembly.


Old

Ran into a really bad problem. Glad I took the front end down. Many problems. The top of the triple tree had been powder coated into the stanchion seats as I tried to draw in this picture. I had a sand dremmel and did away with it. I looked in the middle lug and they were done there. Why not the top I don't know, but the fork cap nuts were not seated and definitely not stable as there was no where near 80 ft. lbs. of torque used on the cap nuts.

Paint

When reassembling there is a slot under the middle lug that should be expanded. See the screwdriver. Toward the center of the bike is where the best place is in the slot to drive the screwdriver in. Then you can insert the stanchions without the fork legs on them. Just assemble everything else needed as in the next picture and use a piece of wood and tap with your hand or lightly with a leather hammer and it will slid up enough in the top lug that you will be able to screw the cap nut into it to hold it and then finish screwing the legs into the sleeve nuts by hand, tightening later. See below.

Paint

In these two pictures, notice something wrong? Dummy me put the left fork gaiter on upside down. Nothing like repeating your work. Took another half hour. Grrr.

Paint

NOTICE: WHEN THE FRONT WHEEL GOES ON MAKE SURE ALL FASTENERS INCLUDING THE TOP PINCH BOLT, FENDER AND THE FORK STEM SLEEVE NUTS ARE ALL LOOSE. PULL THE STANCHIONS UP WITH THE CAP NUT UNTIL THE STANCHIONS SEAT, THEN LOOSEN THEM A LITTLE. START TIGHTENING FROM THE BOTTOM UP, RECHECKING THE ALIGNMENT AFTER EACH FASTENER IS TIGHTENED! PUT FORK OIL IN IT AND PUMP THE ASSEMBLY UP AND DOWN AS YOU WORK. ONLY THE DUST EXCLUDERS TO LOWER LEGS DO NOT HAVE TO BE LOOSE. THEN TIGHTEN CAP NUTS TO 80 FT.LBS. THEN ADJUST HEAD RACE CLEARANCES AS PER SECTION G8 IN THE WORKSHOP MANUAL ON PAGE G12. LASTLY, TIGHTEN THE FORK STEM PINCH BOLT.





Paint

This problem bothered me a lot. The pinch bolts for the lower lug need to have a washer on the back side that is capable of closing the slot in the lug to the stanchions without being bent. Very unsafe without it. This picture shows the wrong washer that was used and the correct thickness needed and was used on rebuild. Torque is 25 ft.lbs. If they get loose the wheel won't work right.



These are the gallery of pictures. Click one. At the bottom of the pics will be a menu to bring you back here or go to the Homepage. Later in a restoration they can help.




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