Fork Teardown

I haven't done the forks yet myself but if I understand correctly , the stanchions are bottomed out and rusted/corroded in place so no room for any existing movement. Then if you clamp the slider in the vise upside down , then drill a hole through the stanchion somewhere near the end as far away from the slider as previously suggested for a bolt to go through. You could then get a larger piece of pipe to slide over the stantion, then put the bolt in your newly drilled hole and you have your slide hammer to knock the stanchion down and out of the clamped in the vise slider. Some of the newer exercise weights have a large enough center hole to go ove the stanchion tube, might need a ten pounder or so since, as you say it's really really frozen in there. This way you wont have to beat on the fork leg or slider. Good luck & post some pictures!! Cj

cj, you have it correct, the route you suggest is what pvisseriii suggested. essentially. I, however, am stubborn and in no rush, so i will fart around with trying to take it apart, until i reach the frustration level where i give up and then go with your suggestion. I bet that is what ends up happening, unless i can sweet talk the maintenance guys at work to help me. Can the stanchions have rotational movement now that the wheel is off and they are out of the yokes? I can't get the forks back into the yokes until later now, i took out the head bearings already... regarding photos, how do you all do that, I end up touching something greasy/dirty, washing hands to pick up camera, move on to next shot so compelled to move part, get hands greasy/dirty...etc lol

Replace the damper, pour in kerosene and soak a week, then start by holding the stanchion in a vice and with a bar through the slider wheel hole ,try twisting it first.
Once it move's you are on your way.

rwalker28 said:

Should mention the old boy is an 850 - 1974, I think; mfg. date 8/73, but the serial 307383, so from my reading this is a early 1974 model year. Correct me if i am wrong...

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307383 should make it a Mk2 or Mk2A. If you wish to regard 307383 as being a 1974 season model then you can do, because as far as I am aware there is no known serial number for the start of 1974 production.

Hi john,

john robert bould said:

Replace the damper, pour in kerosene and soak a week, then start by holding the stanchion in a vice and with a bar through the slider wheel hole ,try twisting it first.
Once it move's you are on your way.

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I will give it a go regarding teardown, and report back. I am quite interested in your products, although I will be a casual user (no danger of me going racing,) being an engineer myself, i like to see the new stuff.

Lots of good suggestions here, I had a set of matchless forks with the same problem. I welded a long pipe to the stanchion, perpendicular to its length. With the slider clamped to a very sturdy vice I was able to rotate the stanchion enough to work in penetrating oil and free the stanchion. Heat helps this process (I used an o/a torch to warm up the slider). I was still unable to get the slider free enough to use the "slide hammer effect", so I had to press out the stanchion using a hydraulic press and a variety of steel rods fit through the damper hole in the bottom of the slider (note an early matchless has a different damping system than your norton, so you might have to be creative with this part. Screw in a cap nut to the stanchion and feed a *very* long steel rod through the bottom slider hole and press/hammer on the rod against the cap nut with the slider in the vise. Hope this makes sense.)

Good luck!

I really like the ATF/acetone mix for freeing stuff up. I'd fill those tubes and lean them in a corner, topping up as necessary. Leave it for a month or so and then come back to it.

Hmmmm... kerosene is not easy to come by anymore, I filled them with gas and capped them off, left them upright in a HDPE bucket in case they leak outside in the shade. The ATF/acetone path is likely better to eventually get between stuck surfaces, the acetone is low molecular weight - assume that is what we are trying to accomplish here. The ATF, likely has low MW wetting agents, I don't know a lot about ATF. Seems like a better idea than gas. It is hot here now (109F last weekend at least,) heat should help the process. Was wondering idly the other day what the difference in ATF's are (Ford, v. GM, etc.) Ought to look that up - internet is full of info anymore - if they print it, it has to be correct, no? LOL.

Heat Gun. Open flame torches can ignite things. Solvents such as Kerosene good but gasoline verrry dangerous and carcinogenic too , wear gloves and minimize aromatic and direct skin exposure. Gloves , soapy water and fire ext. but handy. Outdoors best.

You know, if you wanted to grab onto the fork tube to work them out a bit, you can get a strap wrench or something more aggressive of your choice, around the the top of the tube that is normally hidden behind the headlamp ears. If it marks up a little, file and sand smooth. No big whoop. Nothing to lose.

Just a thought.

I like up-dates, How did you go on? Did any suggestions work? are the forks apart? and which idea was best....just for the records.

Hi John and all, Finally an update. Left these to soak all summer in AFT and Acetone. Too hot here to fool with. So finally got back to them this week. Still stuck like saber toothed tiger in the LaBrea tarpits. So, took them to my new friend Butthead at the brand new motorcycle repair shop down the street from where I work. A few Harley mechanics that left the local Harley shop to start their own business. Dan (aka "Butthead") got them apart and charged me $50 for labor. Told me his 12 ton press loosened them up and a few whacks with a 12 lb hammer from the bottom hole got them apart. Might be too messed up to use, but they are apart. Visually the stanchions and sliders look OK, I need to get the tubes on the granite table to see if they are bent, and need some advise on how to inspect the sliders.

Typical Harley guys, I was in there a couple of times when they sent guys away with issues with "generic japanese bikes" to other shops, however they dig my Norton stuff. I like these guys, they are good boys.

Seasoned Harley guys recognize the close kinship with Nortons. Roll each tube against the other will be much plainer if out of true than a single tube on flat plate. May need the that press to get the swing arm spindle out, one of mind took 26,000 PSI showing on press before it moved. Really have to back up block the cradle or it'd fold right up on that side loading. Such simple machines to deal with and make new friends.

I searched the archives, and could not find an answer, however, there are a lot of posts to look at so here are a couple of questions now that my forks are apart:

1) How does one inspect sliders?
2) What to look for in the damper tubes?

I will say up front the fork internals are a rusty mess, and getting the stanchions out took a lot of force. However those parts (slider and damper tube) are aluminium, and they look OK to me. I just don't know what to look for. Should the diameter in the slider be measured (I didn't see a diameter noted in the technical spec section?) Anything special to note?

The forks are the most mysterious part of the bike to me (other then my well known inability to deal well with electricky components.)

I would like to revive this thread as I'm dealing with a similar issue/ questions....
Mk 3 that has been sitting for 30 years and no idea when it was last on the road.
I didn't have the same problem taking the sliders off except some persuasion required to free the seals. Nothing is recoverable except the sliders.
Now, I took some measurements on one of them. left/right, front/ aft at the top, mid and bottom of the tube. It's all around 38.60mm. The smallest measurement (38.56) was mid tube where I would have expected most the wear from the bottom bush......
Could it be that it was that far off from the factory? the manual calls for 38.087 to 38.125.
As a solution to reuse them, It's either a re-sleeve (SS?) or perhaps slightly oversize bottom bush....What do you think?

Cheers, E

Eric H said:

I would like to revive this thread as I'm dealing with a similar issue/ questions....
Mk 3 that has been sitting for 30 years and no idea when it was last on the road.
I didn't have the same problem taking the sliders off except some persuasion required to free the seals. Nothing is recoverable except the sliders.
Now, I took some measurements on one of them. left/right, front/ aft at the top, mid and bottom of the tube. It's all around 38.60mm. The smallest measurement (38.56) was mid tube where I would have expected most the wear from the bottom bush......
Could it be that it was that far off from the factory? the manual calls for 38.087 to 38.125.
As a solution to reuse them, It's either a re-sleeve (SS?) or perhaps slightly oversize bottom bush....What do you think?

Cheers, E

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Resleeving is problematical as how do you bore accurately and in line for the full length of the slider. Custom bottom bushes would be much easier to do and you get the option to pick a different material than the steel originals.