Fork tragedy to Fork triumph!

Sometimes the jobs that appear to be most straightforward are the ones with the most complications. 

The Ebay fork sliders were as described and I was very pleased to get them.  An added bonus was that the seller threw in some internal spares which may be of use someday.  I cleaned them up, gave them a quick coat of paint and started to put them together.

The drive side fork went together fairly well, although it had a slight notch when reaching and rebounding from full dampening.

(It should be noted that I am using some mismatched parts here;  Unknown stanchions and bearings, etc.  Any heartache involved would be entirely self prescribed!)

The timing side was an entirely different situation;  The stanchion only slid about 2" from the top.
I tried the other stanchion, which did a little better at 3.5" 

I did not take too many photos as I was deeply embroiled in solving the issue at hand.  I will do my best to describe my work in case it can help someone else with the same problem.

I started by stripping the stanchion and placing it in the slider all the way.  I then took some painters tape and wrapped it around the stanchion at the top of the slider.  I now had a measurement to work from.

I was a little stumped as to how I would fix the inner part of the slider.

Sand it?  Wire wheel attachment on a drill?  Grinding paste?

I was then hit with some inspiration.   I began searching online for a brake cylinder hone small enough to fit to fit the bore.

Luckily, Princess Auto had just the thing in stock for $11.99.

I started honing, with occasional addition of mineral oil to act as a cutting fluid.  I would then insert the rebuilt stanchion and check my progress against the taped line.  It was clear that I wasn't getting deep enough into the bore to do the job properly.

I fished around in my drill bit spares to find something to use as an extension;  This was then fitted with some Permatex Steel Weld putty and left to cure.

This worked beautifully as I was able to get the full slider honed out to the right dimension.  I put the piece in the vice horizontally and continued until I finally achieved my goal.  With the 220 grit stones, this was a long process, one that I did over a couple days in intervals.  I would not recommend using a more coarse grit as it may remove too much material.  In that event the unit would be scrap.

The wonderful feeling of working forks turned to despair, when I realized I had (at some point) banged the top of the stanchion, taking it slightly out of round.  The nut would no longer fit!

I started to make phone calls, to see if anyone of my contacts had a spare leg for me.  No such luck.

I posted on the CVMG Facebook group and was contacted by a local machinist name Larry who offered to have a look at it.  I did not need to be asked twice!

The next day I went over and he worked his magic on the lathe, re-cutting the thread and testing with the nut.  We chatted about bikes and I admired his Commando built from parts with many handmade stainless steel pieces.  He refused to take any money for the work and invited me to return should I need any more help.  A true gentleman and a tremendous talent!

With the forks sorted, the project is now back on track.

Until next time....