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Not understanding 500 front suspension 🤔
Oddjob:
The large alloy bit at the bottom is the damper chamber. The allen key bolt which goes in the bottom of the fork slider anchors this to the slider so it can't travel up. The top hat on the end of it is to spread the load at the bottom so it doesn't punch through the bottom of the slider. The large rod is the damper rod, on the 500 this screws into the top nut. The stanchions are shorter than the combined length of the spring and damper, hence why when you insert them into the slider they can move up and down and the spring protrudes from the end when it's inserted. The rod has a small piston attached at the bottom, this is what allows the damping to happen, the spring is there to return it. So as the damper rod moves down the piston travels down the damper chamber and small holes in the piston allow oil to pass through, the bigger the holes the less damping occurs and vice versa. The damper rod is trapped inside the damper chamber so it's this which anchors the whole thing together, it can come apart but I've never had to dissemble one.
The spring acts as the return, the more the spring is compressed the faster it returns the forks to full extension, so fitting washers on the top of the spring for instance helps the rebound, modern forks have what's called preload adjusters on them, which essentially are small spring compressors, the more they are wound in the harder the spring action is. On modern forks there is also a way to adjust the damping externally.
That help?
McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Kerching the Penny has dropped - having read Kens explaination it now makes sense in my head.
I decided to use a block of wood on the floor & one held in my hand & the bottom rod moves it's not one piece - all makes sense.
Next issue will be the correct order of assembly & adding the oil - my manual is lacking the detail I'm looking for so I will need to hunt for any posts here on how to do it or find a U tube video.
I am thinking that the thread on the top of the rod will need to be fully screwed into the top bolt before screwing it into the slider - the bottom bolt & washer fitted but not tightened fully to allow the top bolt to screw into the slider - nip up the bottom bolt - fluid in before fitting the main fork seal & circlip not forgetting to fit the drain bolt am I close ?
I have the main oil seals etc but will need to get the right O rings for the top chromed nuts as Phillpots took them off when they did the hard chroming.
Nurse Julie:
I've got the O rings in stock Ted.
Oddjob:
On the sohc bikes the seal can go into the slider before they are assembled, if a seal blows all you need to is to remove the bottom bolt, slide off the slider, replace the seal and reassembled. Only need to remove the top nut to put the oil back in.
Thread the topnut onto the rod as far as it can go, nip up the locknut and the pull up the stanchion after putting in 160cc of oil, fit the locknut into the stanchion and job’s done.
McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
I've looked in the parts book & the washer at the top of the spring & the short steel tube below the top lock nut are not shown (see photo posted earlier).
If I screw down the large chromed top nut pretty well as far as it will easily go then the lock nut will need to move upwards by about 4mm - this will take some of the tension out of the spring as the tube spacer at the top will be pushed upwards by the spring - is this okay?
Does the fitting look original as the Haynes Manual & Honda Parts book does not show the tube or washer ?
Should I measure the uncompressed spring to see if its within the right limits?
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