Tag Archives: Front Forks

Rebuilding Old Set of CB750K forks 1974 HONDA

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
22 Nov

For many years I have rebuilt my own forks, and the transformation is so abundant, I wanted to share what I do in the Barn with you lot and maybe you can have a go at resurrecting your own set?

These tired front forks came off a 1974 CB750 K and Customer wanted Rebuilt and Polished suspension, so this is what I did to these old girls you see here.

The Lowers needed to be stripped apart and then sanded and cleaned then I will polish them to a Chrome finish for that Custom look, lucky Honda cast these quite thick so plenty of meat to polish by hand.

The upper tubes are toast, this is a common issue with the forks as originally Honda fitted fork covers and the  condensation in different heat simply left water droplets sit here and slowly rust the chrome away and into the tubing, you would not notice at all until you took the fork ears off the bike.

I have taken these apart and bought replacement Chrome tubes, then I sanded and buffed the lowers to a mirror finish, I covered in cling wrap to keep clean whilst I assemble these so as to not scratch the surface.

I slid the dampner into the fork tube and then inserted the upper tube into the lower stanchion, this is secure by a Bolt with a Copper washer right under the fork leg, secured with allen wrench and began the rest of the rebuild of these forks.

I have fitted so many of these Fork seals over the years and people always ask me, which way up do you fit these, I tell everybody that when you fit Honda seals, the ID Numbers should be facing you when you look at the seal seated in the fork lower.

Also, many people ask me how I fit my seals into forks, I have seen people use scary tools or hit with a screw driver, usually ending up tearing or making a hole in the seal, so what I have always used is a piece of PVC that I bought 20 years ago from Home Depot, this is the perfect size to insert oil seals .

I simply slide the PVC tubing down the fork leg until it sits on the seal, it fits perfectly and will not bind up as this makes sure that it is level when you tap the seal into the fork leg.

Personally, I use a Rubber Mallet and tap the tubing until I feel the seal bottom out on the inner shelf the fork has and then I know she is all the way home as you will feel the resistance right away and you can see the recess in the fork where the snap ring goes.

Some Honda’s have these snap rings, or as we call them in England ( Circlip ). But some early models had a spring clamp, but this is a snap ring that sits in the bottom of the cup of lower fork and secures the seal into the stanchion.

I use a set of Circlip Pliers but long nose pliers will do as you need to squeeze these together to slip into fork lower then release to lock seal in place.

I then slide the New Dust cap that I sell many off from the website, over the tube and down to the lower, it simply pushes on and sits tightly over the end of the fork and dresses it well.

 

There you go, nice and snug over the lower fork and easy to fit to be honest, and this job can be done pretty much by anyone with minimal tools.

I used New Stainless Lock Washers and Stainless Flange nuts for the bottom cups to finish them off nicely and its ready for Fork oil which is 5 ounces, I use Automatic Transmission fluid, always have and I throw in a couple of stainless washers on top of the spring to set the preload that I like.

And there you go, ready for the customer to fit back onto his Motorcycle and have fun on the tarmac, just thought I would do a little blog on what I do from time to time as many ask me for tips etc, thanks for watching.

The transformation is so cool to see, I often stop and look at what I have accomplished and you will do the same thing for sure.

So have a go at your ones, you may surprise yourself and save some money at the end of the day too.

Any info you may need about anything bike related, email me on carpy@carpyscaferacers.com or text me on 714-598-8392 I am here to help.

 

 

How to build a cool set of forks for your CB500-CB550 or CB750 Honda SOHC Motorcycle.

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
21 Mar

I get so many emails asking about certain things that I create on the bikes and parts that I build here at my place, so- I thought I would do a little Blog on my Custom Fork service that I have been doing for many years and shipping these set ups all over the Globe. So below is what they start off like, just a bog stock set of worn out, tired, telescopic front forks.

These came off a bike that was parked up many years ago and the Customer purchased the complete bike for a decent price and wanted to take the machine apart and create his own cool Custom ride, he wanted my fork service and this is a Blog on what I did.

Looks like Dogs or cats or something Hairy had been crawling across this bike for some time, also if you look, you can see the tubes are toast as there are many pits in the tubing and hard chroming these days has got so expensive to do.

The Caliper will need to be completely torn apart and I will Blog that a little later on, this is not an uncommon thing to have sent to me to fix and rebuild and hope you enjoy this little journey of what I did to get these set of forks into a really Custom looking piece.

The main goal is to take everything off, then clean up on the outside and then once happy with that, the fun begins in the transformation of these fork tubes.

There is an array of parts that I need to rebuild these and as you can see I have everything for this to fix and get the guy a really nice set up for his Motorcycle. If you look, you can see I machined the lower Fork Stanchions and put grooves in the legs for a great Custom Finished set.

Above, you can see I am about to fit brand new Honda Fork seals to the stanchions and what I personally use is some Home Depot PVC pipe that fits perfectly over the fork tube and allows me to use the tube as a Press to get the seal to slide into the recess inside the fork and not damage the rubber of the seal.

I sat the forks on a small pad and then used my Rubber Mallet and gently tapped the pvc tubing until you feel the seal come to an abrupt stop, that means its into its seating and no more tapping required.

Once the seal is in, I plop the snap ring into its place using some circlip pliers, this holds everything in snuggly and no scratches on the fork tube. You can buy these at Harbor freight Cheap.

I use Brand New genuine Honda Dampener Bolts and crush washers, I like using the real deal and not the Chinese crap that’s out there, and this will have longevity compared to China’s inferior quality.

I also fit Brand New OEM Rubber Fork Dust Caps and to really give it that Custom touch, I fit Chromed steel Dust Covers to finish off the polished Finned Lower Stanchion.

See what I mean?  It really does complete the front fork in dressing the part to show you this is no run of the mill ride, it has attention to detail.

I finish the lowers off by Polishing the clamps and adding stainless Lock washers and stainless flanged nuts, this is a great look and easy to get a wrench on to remove the front wheel at anytime.

I cleaned up the dampeners and spring and set a pre load using 4 stainless washers, an old Motorcycling Racing trick, I also do not ever use standard fork oil, I do like the old guys did and use ATF and that’s so much cheaper to purchase too.

How do I know how much to put in forks? As many of the years of the CB750 have different lengths of lower stanchions, so the volume of fluid changes.

As you can see, I have the Factory specs for the Honda CB750s right at hand and actually sell a book with all the settings in , so I can easily look up year and model to get the capacity required.

Bang on the money and now this is all ready to button up and get the forks completed for the Customer.

See, they sure do look Custom now and am happy with the way these look and the preload is right on the money too, I also use Brand new fork Caps to give the top to bottom New Parts finished look.

So there you go, a Custom rebuilt set of forks that I offer and boy do they look sharp, not cheap but add the parts up yourself, and you will see this is a good deal.

I sure hope that you liked this little Blog, thank you for following me and purchasing my parts, its my passion and Career.