33.4mm fork disassembly, are internals trash?

[ScubaSheen]

So I bought this 33.4mm front end and I just took it apart today, I planned on putting 6 over tubes on but I've never taken forks apart before so I fully disassembled them to clean it and whatnot. Heres what I got:









So right off the bat, the legs didn't have any fork oil in em, so I assume the guy that sold em to me knew that they pissed oil. Thats ok, I planned on doing seals anyway.

Here are my questions, hopefully they can be answered:

One of the springs is slightly warped towards the top, (seen in pic) can it still be used?

Ive looked at a few other 33.4mm fork assemblies from other people, but none of their dampening rods look like these ones and I can't find one that looks like this on the Vtwin manufacturing website for replacement, If it needs to be replaced can I put the one of the other ones in as a substitute?

How can I tell if my dampening rods are shot? One of them does go in farther than the other one, and they are super crusty.

Can somebody link me to something they might also show me the correct way to assemble/dissemble these forks? IK I SHOULD HAVE A MANUAL, but this front end is going on an evo sporty so I didn't have access to such a manual.

If somebody could spit some knowledge at me right now it would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

[ScubaSheen]

Found a layout of the dampening rod



Also at second glance, I am going to need to extend the threads on the top of the dampening tubes if I want to run any sort of over tubes.

[BlackCloudSalvage]

What I do know is that there are two different styles of early 33.4mm forks/lowers. Ones like yers and the other kind taper in on the outside at the very bottom of the lowers. They run a different style internals which are the easy ones to find rebuild kits for. The rods like yours are harder to find and I haven't seen new aftermarket ones...so be careful with those. Good luck.

[Dougtheinternetannoyance123]

Well, the manual issues is not really forgivable, There are multiple sites that have free downloads for the Ironhead manuals as well as many Big twin.
Theres a manual page on the american bikes thread for downloadable manuals on here (CC) and some dont work but some do. But theres several other sources. If at the end of the day you cant find a manual I have a CD with Ironhead manuals from 59 and up, But not sure if too big too email.
Same goes for factory parts books. Must have items. First thing anyone should source is the factory parts book and the manuals.

Its been too many years since I messed with those early front ends, and they were okay for their day, but given the choice and you are not doing a restoration (Sounds like bits of this and that) then the later forks anyway are much better. The forks on my 86 Evo are crude in comparison to the 39 mm on the wifes much newer sporty. So, whatever floats your boat but ask yourself if you want a nice ride, or image?

But I would look around in the everything Sportster page or the American bike page here,, But JJ has some discussions on this as well as someone posted some good details on Fork ID's,
See: http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=90990

The XL forum has a ton of good tech, and I often look on there for ideas from other peoples builds. (Good resource)
See: http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/s...d.php?t=990763

http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=1679884

http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=1522216

And many many more,,,I cant tell by your pix whats going on with your forks, but usually past owners often boogered up the damper assys when trying to run extended forks, but doesnt look like that in your pix but i cant tell. I would consider just purchasing NEW Progressive springs while you are at it. But at the end of the day theres is only so much you can do with the early forks. (Design limits). Just depends on what you want to do, Cafe racer or Bar hopper. The expectations differ. One of my buddies had about 2 decades flat track and MX racing and bought a sporty and while he liked the torquey motor, he bitched constantly about how bad it handled. I had an old article from late 1990s from Hot bike magazine on upgrades and improvements (Since lost the article) and he used it as a starting point. By the time he was done it was a really well setup bike to ride. most people dont ride at that level and might be pointless but my point is, It CAN be done!

I have another friend who modified asian bikes fork assys and installed into stock BSA forks and world of difference,, Another guy Adapted Asian bike fork assys entirely on his British bikes and Cycle world did several articles on his builds, They were impressed. Options are out there,, think outside the box.

[farmall]

Putting that junk on an Evo Sportster is highly questionable. You'll have a shit front end with worthless brakes at best. There's no sugar coating it. By modern standards those forks are utter, utter shit and they weren't anything special when new. If you run longer tubes they'll be as floppy as Hillary Clinton's nethers.

Install them if you hate yourself. Otherwise, clean 'em up and sell them to someone else who doesn't know any better.

It's part of learning and no harm done. You got some teardown practice out of it and now know what's inside.

[ScubaSheen]

Well, the manual issues is not really forgivable, There are multiple sites that have free downloads for the Ironhead manuals as well as many Big twin.
Theres a manual page on the american bikes thread for downloadable manuals on here (CC) and some dont work but some do. But theres several other sources. If at the end of the day you cant find a manual I have a CD with Ironhead manuals from 59 and up, But not sure if too big too email.
Same goes for factory parts books. Must have items. First thing anyone should source is the factory parts book and the manuals.

Its been too many years since I messed with those early front ends, and they were okay for their day, but given the choice and you are not doing a restoration (Sounds like bits of this and that) then the later forks anyway are much better. The forks on my 86 Evo are crude in comparison to the 39 mm on the wifes much newer sporty. So, whatever floats your boat but ask yourself if you want a nice ride, or image?

But I would look around in the everything Sportster page or the American bike page here,, But JJ has some discussions on this as well as someone posted some good details on Fork ID's,
See: http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=90990

The XL forum has a ton of good tech, and I often look on there for ideas from other peoples builds. (Good resource)
See: http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/s...d.php?t=990763

http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=1679884

http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=1522216

And many many more,,,I cant tell by your pix whats going on with your forks, but usually past owners often boogered up the damper assys when trying to run extended forks, but doesnt look like that in your pix but i cant tell. I would consider just purchasing NEW Progressive springs while you are at it. But at the end of the day theres is only so much you can do with the early forks. (Design limits). Just depends on what you want to do, Cafe racer or Bar hopper. The expectations differ. One of my buddies had about 2 decades flat track and MX racing and bought a sporty and while he liked the torquey motor, he bitched constantly about how bad it handled. I had an old article from late 1990s from Hot bike magazine on upgrades and improvements (Since lost the article) and he used it as a starting point. By the time he was done it was a really well setup bike to ride. most people dont ride at that level and might be pointless but my point is, It CAN be done!

I have another friend who modified asian bikes fork assys and installed into stock BSA forks and world of difference,, Another guy Adapted Asian bike fork assys entirely on his British bikes and Cycle world did several articles on his builds, They were impressed. Options are out there,, think outside the box.

Much appreciated Doug, this is what I was looking for.

[ScubaSheen]

Putting that junk on an Evo Sportster is highly questionable. You'll have a shit front end with worthless brakes at best. There's no sugar coating it. By modern standards those forks are utter, utter shit and they weren't anything special when new. If you run longer tubes they'll be as floppy as Hillary Clinton's nethers.

Install them if you hate yourself. Otherwise, clean 'em up and sell them to someone else who doesn't know any better.

It's part of learning and no harm done. You got some teardown practice out of it and now know what's inside.

Well farmall, you could say I hate myself slightly. But I like the look of the skinnier 33.4mm tubes as oppose to the 39mm tubes. So I'm gonna put it together and if really handles THAT bad, I'll swap a better front end on. But I'm ignorant and I doubt thats gonna happen. Thanks for the input!

[Dougtheinternetannoyance123]

Well I had written up a post agreeing with Farmall who tends to be a sensible guy,, but it evaporated and didnt have the energy to re-write it.
But in a nutshell, he is correct,, extending those early front ends is not a great idea. I kinda glossed over the 6 inch over part. Im glad you liked the material i posted and again, if you cant find the material I got it on a CD and can try and PM you but its probably way too big. I need to look into a Drop box account but wont have time until next week,,
I was planning on uploading a bunch of British bike manuals too.

I am a little unclear on exactly what you are doing as well with the EVO Sporty but extended front ends without rake and trail set up right (Stock frames) makes a foul handling scoot. Some dont care and there is a NorCal sporty thread on here that just baffles me,, but whatever floats peoples boats.
Cant go wrong spending time reading this page and all the connected page. be a total Chopper guru when you are done.. Some good shit in there.
See: http://chopperhandbook.com/rake.htm

" Rake and Trail 101

Rake is a term used to describe the angular relationship between the bikes steering stem and an imaginary vertical line dropped down from the centerline of the frame neck to the ground. A cycle with zero degrees of rake has a stem that is perpendicular to the ground or in other words straight up and down.

Such an arrangement doesn't work to well because as a pushing force is applied to the wheels axle the wheel has a tendency to track along a course that is exactly opposite the direction of the applied force. If the force is coming from directly overhead the wheel simply wants to revolve around a pinpoint spot on the ground directly below the force being applied and it will just spin around about its vertical axis getting nowhere as seen in Figure 2.10.