Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Fork in the Road

I bought a pair of chromed outer forks from a party who couldn’t sell them for what they wanted on Ebay. I called them direct and made an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Removal, disassembly, reassembly, and installation looks pretty straight forward. I do have a question for anyone with experience reassembling the Hinckley forks.

The service manual states to use a special tool to drift the top bushing and oil seal into place on reassembly.



The Haynes manual says to use a “suitable drift” (similar to a punch) to install the bushing and oil seal.

Can I get away with the drift (punch) or in your opinion should I purchase the special tool from Bikebandit at $45?

I’d really hate to have to purchase the special tool for a one-time project, but I’d like to make this endeavor as easy as possible.

Does anyone have this tool for “rent”? What pitfalls did you experience for this job?

Thanks in Advance,

Tom

Persoanally I would either get the correct drift or suitable dia. piece of plastic pipe longer than the forks and tap it with a mallet. This way keeping the pressure even and straight so it goes in straight.

EDIT: by the way the plastic pipe at True Value (here anyway) would cost about $2 if they cut a piece the length I wanted. They will sell it by the foot here instead of a 10' section.

I'm with Ian on this one as well.

Using a "suitable drift" - punch style - has the potential for dings and dents and burrs if anything is slightly mis-aligned. It looks like the factory tool works similar to a slide hammer on the fork, and has the benefit of contacting the entire surface of the bushing and the seals. That would provide a more betterer installation. The plastic pipe idea is a good one, IF you can find/make the proper diameters.... looks like there's 2 required.
If you can't find pipe in just the right diameter, maybe a reducer or adapter or other fitting may fill the bill.

I was watching those forks on ebay too, but didn't want to spend the money. Make sure they didn't chrome the insides where the bushing and seals seat. That would be a bad thing.
You would really have a job on your hands trying to drive new parts in there!!

One other idea - see what a dealer would charge to do this. With you having the parts and him having the tool and the experience, it should only take a few minutes....

I just re-assembled my forks and had to buy one of these. I got it from Motion Pro. 41mm Fork Seal Driver

Man... I looked for any possible alternative I could find. I just dint see wy I needed to spend money on this...tried different sized pipes and stuff adn nothing seemed to be right. I didnt want to take a chance on damaging the seals so I bought one...It arrived and in two minutes I had my seals in and within a couple hours the remainder of the front end was back on the bike and ready for a test ride.

I bought from Motion Pro over Bike Bandit cause Bike Bandit can be slow to ship and I was getting antsy.

Ill loan you mine, no charge, just pay for shipping...USPS will be cheapest. PM me your address and Ill look up shipping prices.

Thanks Zdenko!!!

PM sent.

I love a happy ending...

Be sure to post a pic or 2 of those new chrome legs, you lucky dog, you....