(Topic former title: "Quick Gaiter Replacement")
Today was the annual vintage motorcycle show held by the Chicago Norton Owners' Club, of which I am a member for lack of a BSA version. Yesterday, about 2:00 PM, I decided I should replace my torn and ratty gaiters so my A10 would look better in the show. I figured this should take about an hour, maybe less, but no more than 90 minutes, so it would fit in my plan for the rest of the day. So, I set about dropping the whole front end. No problem, really, and I was pleased with myself in realizing beforehand that I needed to prop the rear wheel to keep the bike from falling backwards off the stand when the weight of the front end was dropped. I was disturbed to find that the right stanchion would not move in the fork leg. Now, where to work on this, because table space in my garage is gone? I moved the whole front end to the front lawn and set up shop, on the ground there, with the grass providing the cushioning for the paint.
Alright, I'm already into too much detail. I'm not trying to write a book.
In thinking that maybe there was just a little rust, I decided to flood the leg with penetrating oil. Out comes the plug screw and rolls immediately into the deep grass and is gone forever. I did manage to extract the stanchion by holding it with vise grips and pounding on same with a big rubber mallet. I figured the region on the stanchion I was marring was not critical, and they are replacable, as are the fork bushings. So, I undertook to reduce the diameter of the lower bushing until I had a working fit. I also ran a custom sanding bar (made for my A7 project) into the fork leg to remove surface rust. Yay! for having a lathe that made working on the bushings practical. Not wanting to take off even a little bit more than necessary, it took about six rounds of diameter reduction on the lower bushing before I thought it was OK. Now, go for the fit of the lower and upper bushings together. What a surprise, the upper needed a reduction in diameter. Done. OK, now it's midnight, and ready to reassemble. On trying to draw the first stanchion into the upper tree, I found it was not aligning with the hole in the tree. I was trying to push and shove until the puller nut and stanchion could get into the hole, but, no go. Decided to remove the puller to try it on the other stanchion. As I tried to remove the puller, I heard the sickening sound of the nut that had been on the backside falling to the bottom of the leg. I tried one of my magnetic reach tools, but it was too short. In any case, I figured the steel nut could not be withdrawn from the steel fork. OH, what a brilliant idea! I'll use a piece of gum on the end of a long stick. (No need to describe, you get it already). OK, 1:30 AM this morning (the work was not continuous, by the way), I was exhausted and temporarily defeated.
Good morning, 6:30 AM Sunday! Do you have to get out of bed right now to check two other ideas? Yes you do. First, there's that longer magnet extender in the tool box that you had forgotten, may as well try that. Nope. Then, make a hook from brazing rod that might help fish it out. Nope on the nut, but, as a small success, the gum came out. Yuk. Decided I needed a better look at the bottom of the fork so I made up a flashlight bulb at the end of long wire taped to a piece of brazing rod. Hey! there doesn't seem to be anything in there. It must be good to go. But why? (he wisely asked himself). OK, tie a nut to a piece of thread to see what it would look like if it was there. Oooh! the puller nut, like the nut on the thread, had fallen through the hole in the bushing retainer at the bottom of the stanchion. Ugh! this is looking bad (NOW you think it's looking bad?) and it looks like I will have to completely disassemble the fork leg (this is the other leg). Last hope, turn the whole assembly upside down and try to shake it out. I can lift and manipulate the front end assembly for short periods, but this needed a different approach, so I hung it upside down from a hook in the ceiling and started hitting it with the rubber mallet and manipulating it in all axes. HIP HIP HOORAY! for the beautiful sound of a nut hitting the garage floor. Well, that was about 10:00 this morning and I made the call that, no way, could I have the bike back together for the show, and that meant I could recuperate strength and put the bike together later in the week.
Long story, I hope it was amusing. I'm sure there are some good tips coming my way about how this all could have been done in 20 minutes or completely avoided, if only... Those and the admonishments for bad practice are welcome. Even in my haste, I tried not to destroy anything that is hard to replace. Also, no animals were harmed in the making of this story, unless they were of the insect type that got squashed by me laying on the grass working on motorcycle parts. Finally, the pictures are in no particular order. Sorry about that.
Richard L.
