fork slider woes

[spyke]

Hi Chaps,

Just as I thought I was making a slight bit of progress with this bl**dy project another problem.
Had me tea then, off to the sancturay called the garage to rebuild the A10's forks.On with the radio,out with a beer ,lay all the new parts ,stanchions ,bushes,seals, shims etc on to a nice clean bit of cardboard, take the freshley painted sliders down from their hooks.Get the picture so far so good.Reassemble the first fork in 15 mins flat ,this is easy the second one will be even quicker ..........................3 hours later I leave the garage 2nd fork still unassembled and headoff to the sanctuary of indoors!
To cut along story short after much "micrometering", assembley and dissassembley the lower fork bush wont go all the way down into the slider and despite desperate attempts with rotary wire brushes on a long shaft ,metal polish, a worn out flap wheel on a long shaft   I still couldnt get it to go to the lowest position.I concluded that there must be a bit of corrosion or a little dimple internally caused by an external knock to the slider .This area is doubly diff to get to because of the damper thingy rod sticking up a couple of inches.
So is it another bit for the scrap bin and another few months looking for a replacement,or any ideas?
Cheers Spyke.

[RichardL]

Spyke,

Time for more encouragement. Remember, when you are riding the bloody (not really swearing where I come from) project, you are going to enjoy the hell out of it, except for one thing. You are going to miss the many victories of man over machine that you had in getting her on the road, like fixing the fork leg.

Richard L.

[flashblack]

Spyke,
Just to eliminate another possibilty, push the slider up as far as it will go, and try rotating it, and if the resistance varies you could have the tapered prong not quite lining up with the hole in the bottom bush nut. Mine did this and i carefully filed metal from the hole in the nut until it was free all the way round.
Also, MikeN, i think had a similar problem with the prong being too big to fit in the hole!
So i reckon it`s worth checking, as it may not be the bushes or slider at all.

all the best Richie

[Rusty nuts]

Spyke.

Suffering exactly the same problem, slider is straight with no apparent damage & no dimple, ding etc to impede.
Beerloads of sympathy!
I think Richie might have something there with his idea about the prong, off to my sanctuary to investigate.
Don't bin the slider though, I found on my last rebuild a slider that had had hard impact with something large totally unuseable but made a great bearing drift!

Rusty

[cus]

G'day Spyke,
Some good advice there.
I had a similar problem with the new bushes being a bit tight, I used
the old bush on the end of the staunchin with grinding paste & just
kept on working it up & down till there was just enough margin for
the new bushes...took a while, but better to go slow than too heavy,
those sliders are pretty thin on the ground & cost plenty!
Cus

[Desburnett]

Spyke

If there is an imperfection on the internal bore you may try a Flexhone.
If you have access to some engineers blue, lightly coat the bush and assemble with a rotating action. Remove the bush and inspect the bore (using a torch) to see where the blue has transferred to the bore.
If it is way down inside the flexhone can be inserted to the bore whilst stationary and only put under power one the hone is in position. If the obstruction is very localised you may need some other method as the flexhone will remove material in a full 360 degrees.

http://www.pacehigh.co.uk/pages/default.aspx?pageID=626&

Good luck

Des

[alanp]

Whoa there!  I strongly say resist the temptation to remove any metal from inside the fork leg unless there is obvious damage on the outside. These bushes are notorious for varying in diameter as supplied. Check out the diameter first against both the old ones and the one in the fork you've finished. You may find that the one that's a tight fit is oversize, in which case a light rub on the od may well do the trick. I say 'light' rub since material will come off quicker than you expect. Been there, done it, got the T shirt, as they say.

[beezalex]

I've encountered this problem a number of times.  It usually appears to be caused by some numbnuts clamping the sliders in a vise and crushing them.  The solution is to get an exhaust pipe spreader and gradually expand the affected area.  I've also heard of people making an oversized mandrel on a lathe and driving it into the slider.

[chaterlea25]

Maybe I put my reply in the wrong thread????

http://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php/topic,1889.0.html

Regards
John O R