Honda-SOHC
SOHC.co.uk Forums => CB500/550 => Topic started by: Seabeowner on September 27, 2017, 01:57:09 PM
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Talked earlier of my poor buy from DK. It was nothing to do with the sale as all the faults were well hidden.
But with the rocker cover that had been repaired with JB weld to the extremely worn exhaust guides to slipping starter clutch, to the dodgy cam chain guides to the slightly bent fork legs...
They run out about 3-4mm. Presume they can be straightened as the chrome is ok. Anyone use Maidstone Motoliner? Or any other suggestions.
I have a pair of old 500 forks with poor chrome and they look straight in the yokes, so think everything else is OK.
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We'll as you are going to be throwing money at it like confetti you may as well buy new stanchions.
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Or send them to phillpots and have them straightened and hard chromed
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Takes me back to getting on a bus in Lancaster in the 1970s with a pair of well bent Triumph T140 fork tubes, off in search of a suitable engineering company.
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I've streightened a few motorbike forks in my pipe bender, always verify the metal has no stress raisers, marks or creases etc. Stretch marks blah blah. Basically if in doubt get a pro to verify but provided it's a slight bend and the tube remains un marked and round in cross section then it can be done carefully in a normal 10 ton pipe bender, using a bit of cloth on contact points to save the chrome from any marking. I checked the results by rolling the fork on a sheet of glass. I've found the scrap fork tubes are a great source of thick wall pipe for my various mini dumpers and other engineering projects. I've genrally found the headstock stem and frame wind up bent about the same time as the forks hit that point where I decide they are scrap, though I'd always check the frame is in line if I find bent forks.
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I've straightened a few on a small press on v blocks just press on the high spots, spin untill you find the high spot again and repeat untill straight. Easy really.
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I have used maidstone motoliner on a couple of ocasions. This was to straighten wheels not forks but i can definitely vouch for their ability as the job they did on the wheels was superb..... the wheels were returned to me in quite astonishingly straight condition, one was aluminium alloy and the other was an expensive Honda Magtek...
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Yes I'll probably take them to Maidstone motoliner. He said it was ok to bring along the complete fork legs and if arranged in advance he could do them that day. But I'll probably strip the tubes out to check everything else.