Grad student fork adventure, II

this episode: Half (un)done?

Our hero has embarked on the change of a lifetime: putting cbr600f3
internals and VFR800 springs into his VFR750f forks. He's survived
the negative feedback of the [expletive deleted] flake who sold him
the f3 forks ("whining about $10 forks, no wonder you ride a '98
f3"), he's even gotten them apart! Now for the VFR750 forks. We join
our hero in the garage at the end of a windy summer day.

Earlier today, I ran down to the Honda dealership to get my (special
order, no less!) Honda crush washers for the fork legs. Nobody in
town had anything like them, so I ordered them last week. Today,
they're in. $1.99 EACH!!!! I pay about 1/4 that for my oil drain
washers! Anyway, I've got them.

So, I decide to at least drop the fork legs...well, while
everything's off why not at least try once to loosen the lock bolt? I
mean, it might even come off. So, I socket the cut-down hex key in
and...it slips. So I quit on that leg and go to the other one. It
breaks loose and spins right off. Oddly enough, this is exactly like
the cbr forks (and since I've got one perfect bolt from the cbr
forks, that means that I've got a pair of perfect bolts for re-
assembly!). Ok, so I drain that leg in situ and pop the other leg out
of the triples. I drain that one while I'm there.

I guess I'll have to take that leg down to the Honda shop and
beg them to hammer it out, maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, I did get one open, so why not pull the guts? Great, except
for the big squirt of fluid all over my pants... :-( But anyway, I
check the cbr cartridge against the vfr cartridge, but unfortunately
only _after_ I pull them apart. Some interesting findings...

The body of the VFR compression cartridge (the part with the threaded
hole in the bottom) appears to be steel! The CBR cartridge body is
Aluminum. Furthermore, the VFR rebound cartridge total length (so,
the steel rod with the cartridge attached, but separated from the
rebound cartridge and the "shell") appears to be slightly different
from that of the cbr! I'll see about getting measurements once I've
got the other VFR leg apart.

In addition, I find that the VFR800 springs are about 1.5in longer
than my VFR750 springs. I guess I'll have to cut down my spacers
before re-assembling everything...

So, I'm in a holding pattern until I can get the other fork leg apart
and cut down my spacers. In the meantime we've learned one lesson:
-don't even bother trying to take your fork legs apart without an air/
electric impact wrench.

later,
Johnj

I'm off to change pants and get a beer...
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