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CB400 Forks

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2 for the soul:
Hi,

First I'm going to apologise, I found a thread some time back that ended around 2018/19 and was hoping to resurrect the conversation as my issue is of a similar ilk but I've spent a good hour trying to find it and had to give up!

I put the front wheel back of my '76 CB400 onto the spindle, arranged all the parts and low and behold there was about 1/4 inch gap between the left fork leg and the speedo drive (see picture 1). The front fender and brake ass. all fit to the right although the calliper is ridiculously close to the spokes (see picture 2). Not sure if this is right?

The chap in the previous thread eventually decided to clamp the forks together from the other side, much to everyone else's dismay for obvious safety concerns! I've twisted the forks in the yokes and the spindle end didn't appear to move any closer to the drive, I've taken the forks off and tried rolling them along a surface with a light behind and there was no discernible bend, I've loosened them in the yokes and pumped the front down to try to settle the alignment etc etc. The only slight hint of a bend I could see was by holding both stanchions together and whilst they were touching at one end, at the other there was no more than a millimetre between them - no idea if this could cause 1/4 inch movement at the spindle but it seems unlikely?

There are, however, scratches to the surface of the stanchions at the end nearest the spindle (see picture 3 and 4) indicating they're rubbing against something, does anyone know if these scratches would indicate a bend in one or both forks?

I can obviously get new stanchions but they're pretty costly and I'd rather not only to find they're not the problem so I now come to my main questions:

Is there another 'del boy' style garage technique I can use to see if my stanchions are bent? Or a way to see if the lower part of the fork is the issue?

Does any one know of a similar style of front end that would be a direct replacement? Ideally one that I could continue to use my wheel and hub with so just the forks and TT and ideally something I don't need to sell a kidney for.

Thanks very much in advance for anyone's help, and again very sorry if I'm missing a thread of the same topic!

Bryanj:
Starting from speedo drive side spindle goes through drive, wheel bearing, internal spacer, wheel bearing, external spacer into nut with hexagon next to spacer.
Are all those there and the bearing retainer screwed all the way in?

TrickyMicky:
Looking at your pics, it gives the impression that you are trying to instal wheel/forks with the bike on centre stand and resting on the front wheel, makes it bloody difficult, have only recently installed newly rebuilt wheel with wood blocks under engine and rear end strapped down. The photo showing the front disc gives the impression that the wheel is canted over.
     Are both the forks installed at EXACTLY the same height in the top yokes?
     Looking at the scuff marks, have you possible had the legs re-chromed/re-ground? (Correct size?)
    Have you got all the spacers/collars attached in the correct place as per attached diagram?

andut:
Check you have the brake side spacer fitted (item #154 in the parts illustration above) - I recall that the spacer is longer than the 1/4" you're looking for, but it does recess into the brg to give about that offset.

2 for the soul:
Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for the speedy responses!

So I've got some blocks under the engine and the rear wheel strapped down so i can attach/detach the wheel as often as I like. Once it's in place i've been putting a block underneath to keep it firmly against the forks until I get the spindle clamps on. I've got the straps on the lower yoke and one's tighter than the other which is probably why it looks wonky. Both forks are clamped in at the top the same, and I don't think they've been re-chromed, I polished them up when I got the bike but only the space above the dust cap.

I've definitely got all the pieces from the diagram and in order, I've used the one from the Haynes manual, the one from the Aladdin's cave copy of the manual and one from CMSNL (they're all the same) and i've definitely got the pieces. The bearing retainer appears to be screwed in all the way and is flush with the surrounding hub.

I've definitely got the brake side spacer which sits into the bearing a bit, I've measured it and it's 17mm - so not sure if this is too short or the wrong spacer??

Thank you so much guys!

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