Re: Rhory's rides and projects .
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 7:24 pm
How wrong was I.....royster81 wrote: So the only things left to do to the CB400SF at the minute are to replace the headlight and rim as these have some little road rash on them and repair the pitted fork legs, oil has stopped weeping on the left leg so I'll ride away at it and service them over winter, or at least get the summer out of it before taking it apart again.
The seal was damaged hence the leaking leg but Id stuffed a bit of tissue ( cowboy alert !!!!) under the dust seal to catch anything that did make it past the oil seal and this was fine for a few runs but I thought the leak was so slow Id be able to get the summer from it....I was wrong.
On a trip out to see my dad at his caravan I looked down and oil was shooting up from under the dust seal and it was running down the fork leg.
had to turn the bike around and come home it just wasn't safe.
Id looked into getting the fork done over winter and had made my mind up that instead of buying new tubes from Honda Id instead post them to http://www.pittedforks.co.uk/ for rechroming ,rechroming was working out cheaper and ,if you believe the text, the rechroming is harder/more durable than what comes on the bike from standard.
Instead of stripped the forks and posting just the stantions I was going to post the full leg and get phillpots to rebuild them. All I had to do was send them the legs and new bushes,they supply the oil/dust seals and oil and cover return post.
So I whipped the forks out.
Easy peasy, I got online to get phillpots address and then read the text about straightening forks,they say most forks have some degree of bend but if the forks are creased theres nothing you can do.
Guess what.... yep, mine have a few small wavers , I was going to post them anyway in the hope they could be fixed but £20 to post them (if im lucky) for them to tell me their fcuked ( a technical term ) and for me to then pay another £20 for return posted had me thinking should I just but 2 new Honda stantions.
But its not just 2 stantions is it.... I now need oil,oil seals and dust seals ( all the things phillpots suppled ) and the time to strip and rebuild them.
David Silvers to the rescue ( Id hardly call it a fcuking rescue but !)
Since the forks are out i began to strip them, and heres how bad they where...
The mayo type gunk around the top of the lowers
Im no suspension technician but Id say fork oil isn't meant to loo like this
The seals
The bushes, see the right bush has score marks where the pitting has worn away the coating
The pitting on the stantions
And the forks as they sit, stripped ready for the new stantions from Honda.
Honda say they are a special order and could take upto 5 weeks but Im hoping it'll not be that long( phillpots where quoting me a 7-8 week turnaround to rechrome and rebuild them)
So the wait begins