Evening all,
I've enjoyed stripping the forks and putting them back together again, thanks to this forum, which has been very helpful to me as someone who hasn't done it before. I'll be refitting them to the bike soon.
As I'm new to it, I thought I'd just see if there is any advice regarding alignment please.
It seems to me the forks need to be correctly positioned as follows:
1. Vertically when viewed from in front of the bike. Presumably when they are tightened up into the taper they will be vertical?
2. At the correct angle, and in line with each other, when viewed from the side. Again, should pulling them up into the taper ensure that?
3. At the bottom of the fork legs, the halved housing for the spindle will need to be in the correct position and orientation so that the spindle will held horizontal and at right angles to the bike. Hmmm... how to ensure that.
Is this correct, and is there anything else? Any advice please? How do I ensure the forks are correctly positioned? Thanks in advance.
Phil
PS Adrian, I know you mentioned undoing the pinch bolts and the headstock centre nut and pumping the forks? Not sure what that's about but I'm guessing I'll need to do it.
The only real issue with re-assembling the front forks is to avoid the top and bottom yokes ending up twisted relative to each other - that's the reason why everything should to be put back together first, including the wheel, and then the forks need to be pumped up and down to properly align the yokes before tightening everything down. Obviously, the sliders need to be rotated to allow the spindle to be properly inserted into both.
Can anybody give me an idiot-proof step-by-step guide? Phil
It's pretty straightforward from memory:
1. Fill forks with correct amount of oil
2. Fit springs to stanchions
3. Push fork into correct side of lower yoke as far as it will go
4. Insert special tool through top yoke and screw into top of stanchion tightening lower yoke pinch bolt as necessary
5. Firmly pull up stanchion into the taper in top yoke with pinch bolt loose and tighten lower yoke pinch bolt to retain stanchion
6. Remove tool and screw in fork top nut to pull up stanchion loosening lower fork pinch bolt as necessary
7. Tighten lower yoke pinch bolt and, at that point, it's always a good idea to remove top nut to check stanchion has been pulled up fully into top yoke before tightening again
8. Re-assemble front wheel on to fork and fit front brake cable
9. At this point, if you apply the front brake and pump forks they should move up and down smoothly
10. If not loosen fork top nut and lower yoke pinch bolt and then pump forks up and down until movement is smooth
11. Finally, tighten fork top nut and pinch bolts fully.
The main thing you have to look out for is the stanchion rotating when you try to tighten up the top nut which the taper is there to prevent but you sometimes have to tighten up the lower yoke pinch bolt to help.
If you fill forks with oil before fitting, sods law the stanchions will drop and you will be clearing up the mess. Fill the forks after fitting. I have played this game.
Okay thanks very much indeed for this.
So it appears that drawing the fork fully up into the taper ensures correct position if the forks.
I guess I need to line up the spindle housing by eye, in order to ensure it's at right angles to the bike so that the wheel will be pointing exactly forward, and to be sure the spindle will be horizontal so that the wheel will sit dead vertical.
Phil
When the forks/wheel\mudguards are fitted, should the wheel not be pointing quite straight ahead the same way as the forks, undo the 3 clamps bolts in the yokes, holding the wheel with your knees, use pressure on the handlebars to align wheel. When done tighten the 3 bolts.
Leaving the left side wheel spindle clamp slightly loose when you pump the forks will allow the fork to align on the spindle, if pulled together the fork bottoms may slightly misalign and cause stiffness in the fork action.
With the forks out you might want to check the steering bearings condition.