Fork Preload and Travel?

I recently installed the Lansdowne damping units - still dialing them in but the riding season has barely begun in New England - and so have the take-off stock dampers with the Greg Fauth (Decent Cycles) modification and progressive springs sitting in my parts bin; if anyone's interested, please reach out.

Apologies if this sort of posting is a faux pas.

Thanks - BrianK

Dan1950 said:

When I changed out the gators, I drained the oil from the lower legs and put in 5oz of ATF type F. That is when I noticed the difference.

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Surely ATF is too thin for Norton forks ?

Fast Eddie said:

Surely ATF is too thin for Norton forks ?

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It is recommended in the manual, but yes I believe it is too thin.

Fast Eddie said:

An old school preload botch is to put spacers twixt fork top nut and springs to preload them.

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L.A.B. said:

The standard fork springs are already close to becoming coil-bound when the forks are fully compressed so anyone thinking of fitting additional preload spacers that reduce the fitted length of the springs is likely to result in them becoming coil-bound before the forks are fully compressed thus reducing fork travel and why the Greg Fauth/Decent Cycles modification has longer damper rods.

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I'm only lacking about 1/8" to keep the Old Britt's fitting from hitting the fender. A 1/4"spacer that would reduce the travel to the bottom would probably work.

Perhaps the botch might work in my case, along with new progressive springs and 30w oil.

Dan1950 said:

I'm only lacking about 1/8" to keep the Old Britt's fitting from hitting the fender. A 1/4"spacer that would reduce the travel to the bottom would probably work.

Perhaps the botch might work in my case, along with new progressive springs and 30w oil.

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If you are interested, I looked at how the progressive springs bind with some photos here