Hi Not Ducati, [emoji11], but I figured forks are forks and I hear the Gixxer forum is scary, north of the great wall type stuff. Going to spray up the yokes(?) but how do I sort the rust on the shiny bit? Think I'm going to take them to the bike shop down the road to get the fluid changed, looks a bit tricky.
If it's above the travel of the fork slider which it looks like it is polish it off with duraclit or similar brand and seal it with nail varnish
Looks fine to me a quick polish should see it looking decent enough. They look like conventional forks which are quite easy to build. New seals, springs if you need them, oil change and check the oil level and your forks should be fine.
I read the Haynes on it. They gave it 4 spanners. Not sure I'm ready for that yet. I did watch the "Del Boys garage" you tube and it didn't look to bad.
If you're up to taking the legs out yourself, only take the legs in to the shop, you'll save most the cost
I tried to rebuild a set of forks from a Yamaha XJ 750 once using a Haynes manual. Hadn't worked on forks before but I'd rebuilt and rewired whole bikes and rebuilt engines so I thought how hard can it be? Tried to drift out something that wasn't supposed to drift out and had to go to Staffordshire to buy another set of forks. :Bucktooth: Got a holiday in the Peak District out of it but that wasn't in the plan.
I am just rebuilding a set of Yamaha RD250LC forks that are over 30 years old and the bike has been standing outside covered up for 8 years to my knowledge and I must admit it's quite straight forward. It has needed new fork stanchions though and I had to saw one leg in half to get the internals out as the top fork plug cap was seized solid, the legs were gone anyway, yours look OK. If the plunger mechanism is held by a bolt screwed up through the fork leg then the job should be quite easy, the hard bit might be compressing the fork spring to remove the top end cap. This will either be held in by a clip or be a screw fitting. You may find however even if you do get it apart that the fork bushes might be worn in which case you may not be able replace them but have to buy two new forks legs if they are both gone. There is often a Teflon coating on the bushes which once that wears through causes stiction and poor damp and rebound action. So if you do contemplate getting them apart make sure you check them over thoroughly.
Trouble is, i can look at them but i don't know what i'm looking at. I don't know what is acceptabel wear and what isn't. This is what I have watched: But the local back street bike place said £40 + fluid on lose forks so i may just do that.
If there is wear or scuffing on the bushes then check to see how easily the stanchions fit in the fork bottoms. If they seem loose then your bushes have gone and you will need to see if they are replaceable or not. LC Yamaha ones are not so a new leg is required. If the bike is low mileage then they should be fine.
That's the one, Duraglit - what was I thinking :Facepalm: I find Duraglit quite magic but Autosol would do - don't shop on line for Duraglit though as Tesco stock it in the cleaning section for half to a third of the price you can get it on Ebay
If you want to go the whole hog speak to these people www.amphardchrome.co.uk not the cheapest solution but may still be worth considering.
