Front end strip

The front forks on my bike are VERY tatty- both the fork and front mudguard need repainting and attention to rust- and in order to remove the mudguard you have to remove the forks anyway so it looks like a front end strip for me!  Much of what follows is simply my job record photos showing my bike to aid reassembly. Some of which- particularly the wiring pics show my setup which is now "bespoke" (i.e. buggered) and will not be relevant to anyone except me. Apologies for the indulgence; but this blog is after all first and foremost my own record of my work.

The front suspension system looks really weird- I don't think I've seen anything quite like this elsewhere. The fork legs themselves do not hold the front wheel. Instead they are bowed outwards following the contours of the inside of the mudguard to form an inner frame. On this is mounted a U shaped swinging arm which extends forward to hold the wheel. Shock absorbers are positioned between this arm and the top of the fork "frame"9 inside the mudguard. This sounds complex- and it is but it will be easier to follow once I have managed to separate the components.

Step 1- remove the front wheel which is already covered in another post. I then took lots of pictures to record the present arrangement.

LHS of swinging arm showing wheel spindle clamp position at the end and the shock absorber lower mount

The lower swinging arm is U shaped and continues around the inside of the mudguard where it is attached to the internal frame formed by the fork legs  by a large pivot bolt

The rhs for the swinging arm (naturally) connects to the rhs shock-absorber.

Looking up- Forks bow outwards to the side after penetrating the mudguard. Note route of front brake and speedo cables and the shock-absorber top mounts.

Top shock absorber top attachment covered by aluminum trim

Step 2: Remove the nacelle. The following pictures simply illustrate my existing cable routing- which is not necessarily correct but it works. This is just a record for rebuilding.

Fr brake enters nacelle above bars- throttle loops back toward carb- seems to be misrouted here and should perhaps pass through horn mount like the clutch cable?

Cables on the lhs are complicated by wiring. Clutch cable enters nacelle above the bars as does the lighting/horn cable bundle

Clutch cable exits nacelle above lock and turn limiter

Front view of cables

Brake and speedo cables enter mudguard  and each follow the forks down the sides. evidence of old cable mounts so it seems they need to be secured to the fork legs.

Front Brake cable- perished cable clip for speedo cable visible on right of picture

I removed the headlight- the following pictures simply record my unique wiring

Electrical cable routing

The construction of the nacelle and its mounting have been discussed in another post so I removed it as shown there. 

Note front brake and speedo cables penetrate mudguard.

Step 3 Remove the front brake and speedo cables.

It looks like the cables pass through grommets in the mudguard- in fact I found later that this is a rubber interface plate. The front brake cable is best detached at the lever- freeing its smaller end which passes easily through the mudguard. 

Brake cable- small end passes through mudguard.

The speedo cable is actually pretty large at both ends so its a fiddly fit but I passed the top end through. the speedo cable passes behind the fr suspn frame to the rear of the shock absorber.

Step 4: The handlebars have to come off next so this means removing the clutch cable- again disconnected at the lever and fed back through the forks.

Disconnected clutch cable note it passes inside fork struts

The bars are held by clamp bolts at the top which bolt into  a yoke beneath- this is turn is bolted to the fork struts- bolts that serve as a handy earthing point as well.

I removed the two yoke bolts- note you may need to jam the inner bolt with a screwdriver to stop it turning as you unscrew

The clamp bolts are undone releasing the bars. Note the shakeproof washers beneath these bolts and the nut register bracket to lock the bars to the fork position.

The bars could then be rested on the bench seat clear of the forks.

Step 5: Remove the swinging arm bolt- this is a large bolt that passes through the internal frame-. To my surprise there is a grease nipple inside the mudguard although it was heavily caked in road grit which had to be cleaned off before it was visible!

Grease nipple in centre of swinging arm mount

The swinging arm is bolt is accessed below the two inspection caps clipped into the mudguard. Its a large bolt with a nut and washer both outside the mudguard bracket so that the sw arm also holds the fork frame to the mudguard. However the nut unscrewed easily. 

The pivot bolt was very tight but could be loosened by moving the swinging are up and down. Of course I cant do this at present since the shock absorbers limit movement so removing the shocks was my next problem.

Step 6: Remove the  Shock-absorbers

The shocks are held at the top by a double nut (hidden beneath the alloy trim piece) and at the bottom by a pivot pin (grooved clevis pin) that passes through the shocks and a bush pressed into the swinging arm. Its secured by its mushroom head on the outside and on the interior (i.e. wheel side) by a circlip. On my bike both sides were heavily corroded and the circlips fell apart when any pressure was applied. 

However the pins themselves were solidly corroded in the shock absorbers. Sadly I couldnt heat them up to free them because of the plastic shrouds on the shock absorbers themselves. I used plenty of penetrating spray but removing them was the devil of a job. I was able to start movement by tapping a fine screwdriver under the mushroom head and then using progressively thicker screwdrivers to lever them out a little. I applied WD40 around the head and tapped it back in before repeating the process- gradually easing the pin out a little further each time. I combined this with tapping using a drift on the opposite side, again with copious WD40. This eased the pin  in and out spreading the lubricant inside until at last the pin could be tapped through.

The pin was unfortunately damaged in the process although I might be able to rescue it with some lathe work. The mushroom head is now distorted from the levering and the circlip grove  is obstructed by defamation caused by the drift. I may have to buy new pins and bushes anyway though owing to the discovery below.

Once I could move the swinging arm I found to my surprise that it could be moved and pivoted on the bolt. Holding the bolt head with a wrench whilst moving the arm up and down loosened it considerably The swinging arm pivot bolt is actually screwed into the front forks frame so once the nut and washer have been removed unscrew the pivot bolt from the opposite side until it can be tapped through and the arm removed.

At last Swinging Arm pivot bolt taps out towards lhs of the bike.

The corrosion was centred on the ends of the bolt where it passes through the front suspension frame- not the bushes inside which were in surprisingly good condition. This is similar to the situation with the swinging arm where the pins were held by corrosion to the shock absorber mounting fork not to the swinging arm. However once I could remove and inspect the swinging arm itself I was shocked to find that there were no remnants of the shock absorber mounting bushes at all! These are nylon bushes and seemed to have worn away completely. I am not sure if this has also worn the swinging arm mounting point-so that even new bushes may now not help, but if so then I should be able to ream the mounting eyes and make up a suitably sized brass or nylon bush to fit when I rebuild. 

The ends of the swinging arm tube were covered by their caps and the bushes inside looked to be in good condition.

End cap on sw arm

Cap removed- still quite a bit of grease in here so big clean-up needed. Bush visible below.

Step 7- Remove the fork assembly complete with mudguard and shock-absorbers.

The mudguard is held to the forks from inside by two M7 bolts- very covered in road grime. The bolts unscrewed easily enough but the  washers beneath them had disintegrated.

The mudguard cannot be removed until the forks have been removed from the fork tube on the frame. This is now relatively simple -unscrew the large tube nut

This releases the handlebar yoke

Remove the handlebar yoke and tube nut to expose the bearing  cap nut and race beneath.

Support the forks from beneath as the steering bearing nut is unscrewed as they will drop out of the fork tube. There are two bearing races, one each at the top and bottom of the fork tube and each has 21 5mm steel ball bearings- take care. Luckily in my case the bearings were trapped in pretty solid dried and congealed grease. I recovered 41- I don't know if I lost one or if there was one missing! The forks drop out and the mudguard can be detached. Take care with the shock absorbers as these are still attached and dont respond well to sideways forces. The fork unit itself seems a very complicated (and expensive) piece of welding to manufacture.

Forks removed from fork tube. The outward bowing of thecfork legs is obvious. The shock absorbers are still attached and note the rubber junction plate which fits beneath the mudguard.

Mudguard detached.

The fork tube and each bearing cup remains on the bike of course . Clean out the grease and check them for pitting and corrosion

Frame fork tube- note top and bottom bearing cups.

Luckily both bearing cups seemed to be suitable for reuse, there was no  pitting or scoring.

Step 8: Further dismantling now involves removal of the shock absorbers from the fork mount. Firstly remove the slot headed self tapping screw that holds the aluminium trim to the top of each shock-absorber.

Space is limited and this is a bit of a design flaw- I'd have used Allen capped screws here- but at least these weren't particularly tight and I managed to loosen them with an offset screwdriver.

This revealed the double nut at the top of the shock absorber

Using 2 11mm spanners you can hold the lower whilst undoing the upper to release the shock. Note that the threaded stud at the top of the shock absorber does have a screwdriver slot so it can in theory be held whilst screwing or unscrewing the nuts. However this appears to be made if cheese and is simply not up to the job- its very delicate so try not to use it.

The double nuts sandwich the shock-absorber to the fork bracket using a sandwich of rubber bushes and caps above and below the bracket. There is a spacer tube to prevent over crushing.

Remaining top nut loosened- rubber washer and cap visible. There is a similar washer cap arrangement beneath the bracket mounting point as well.

Step 9

Once the shock-absorbers are off they can be dismantled and refilled with oil if necessary. I'm hoping not to need to go that far, but I would like to de-rust and repaint the cover tubes at least. The cover tubes can be removed by refitting both nuts and tightening the lower up against the upper. Then grip the upper nut (only) in a vice and screw  the cover up and off the stud in a CLOCKWISE direction.

You will need to remove the nuts to get the upper shroud covers fully off so use a screw driver  to hold the shock-absorber stud in its delicate slot and prevent it from turning as the shroud rises up the thread. With a freely rotating shroud this is probably the only sensible use of that slot.

Once unscrewed the shroud detaches and the spring can be lifted off. Im going to repaint the shocks and it would be easier to do this if they were disassembled. This is relatively simple but you need to remove the top cap. I hung the shock from the vice jaws (not clamped) and tapped it down with a drift until the cover cap fell off.

This exposes the oil seal top-cap held by a snap ring. Im hoping that I don't need to remove that as I'm not intending to refill the shocks.

The rubber cushion pulls off the shock absorber shaft. The black rubber sleeve can be removed by pushing the grey lower shroud upwards along the shock. The black sleeve may be tight but can be loosened if its warmed slightly with a hot air gun.

Push the grey lower shroud up the shock and it should push the black cover up and off the shock absorber.

Black cover removed by pushing the lower grey plastic shroud upwards to displace it.

The spring seat washer lifts off.

If you want to remove the plastic lower shroud then you need to remove the internal snap-ring visible inside the plastic shroud.

Luckily the shroud can slide up the shock to expose the lower mounts

I derusted these and masked them off with tape before spraying them with silver hammerite

This is the shock components removed from the absorber.

To remove the lower plastic shroud simply remove the snap ring visible about half way down the damper. Lever or pick the end out and displace it upwards. You can then ease the rest out by working round it. Finger pressure is sufficient. The plastic shroud then slides off.

The snap ring holding the top seal in place is virtually impossible to remove as you canvt fit a blade or pick under it to lever it out of its internal groove. In the end I cut and filed a small slot just down to the top of this groove so I could work a screwdriver blade in from the side and pop the ring up. Be wary; cover with a cloth as the snap ring can spring a considerable distance!

Slot cut at side of shock absorber to allow the snap ring to be removed more easily

Snap ring removed

I address the stripping and refilling of the shock absorbers in a later post. 

Components of the front end stripped for rust treatment and repainting.

I'm hoping this completes the front end strip as far as I need to go- now its time for cleaning, de-rusting and stripping off paint before dealing with any corrosion or damage and reassembly.

Components stripped

New grease nipple inserted into swinging arm

I renoved the press in grease nipple and cleaned the sw arm out of all old grease. I enlarged the hole to m7 and tapped it to M8. I could then use an angled grease nipple in which I could reduce the thread length so that the nipple screwed in without obstructing the swinging arm spindle. Finally I could prime and spray the arm itself- I used Ford van white. I deal with the rebuilding of the shock absorbers in a separate post.

Reassembly was essentially the reverse of dismantling.