Mailman’s XS2 a full on restoration

Thanks for all the input guys. I’ll take it all into consideration. I’ll see what kind of fit I’m looking at with the new races once I get my frame painted.
The race that came out, it wasn’t all that loose. It still had to be knocked out with a punch.

 

Today I needed a break from sanding, it’s just so tedious. So I thought I’d tackle a job that needed doing.

EVERYTHING WAS GOING SO WELL..........Until it wasn’t.

I decided to tackle assembling my forks.


I started with the left fork leg. The first thing I did was install the new seal, the seal washer and circlip in the lower leg.


Then I installed all the inner dampener pieces, which slide in as a unit, and then secure it with a circlip.
I used fork oil to lube the inside of the tubes and all the moving parts prior to assembly.


Now the fork tube , with the damper assembly inside can be slid into the lower leg and secured with the Allen head bolts and red fiber washer from the bottom of the leg, using my specially made socket to hold the assembly from the inside of the leg.



Now I can slide the fork spring in, with the little collared washer on top and then the spacer tube.


Next up I install the dust seal and the dust seal cover.


I am going to add the fork oil at a later point. So at this point I screwed the fork cap on and called this one done.
Everything fits as it should and it went together super easy. This is fun!


Then I moved to the right fork assembly and HERE IS WHERE THE PAIN BEGINS.
Everything was all clean and polished and ready to go together, and then........ BIG PROBLEM.

When the fork tube was slid into the lower leg, it gets about 3” from the end and it gets stuck......really stuck.
I tried twisting and messing around with it, but no go. Now , when I first disassembled this, I checked the fork tubes for true. I rolled them across a flat surface to check for wobble and I sighted down them, but they looked straight to me.

I took it back apart and checked it again for being true, and I can’t see it. There are some scoring marks on the lower leg, but I cant see any bend in the leg.

Now, if you’ve been with me for a while, you might remember the original right fork leg had a broken fender mount hole, so I wound up sourcing a complete set of used forks on EBay, just to get that lower leg. The fork tubes on the replacement set were corroded and pitted and worthless.

So as of right now, I’m stalled and frankly not sure how to proceed. The original forks had broken parts and missing components, so I ponied up for another set, took the best parts to make one good set, then cleaned everything up and polished the legs, AND I STILL DONT HAVE A GOOD SET OF FORKS!!!
Why are these forks torturing me?

If I had to guess, I think the fork tube must have a slight bend that I just can’t see. And given that one of the original fork legs had a broken mount, that might be a clue that maybe the PO ran into something? Who knows.
Sigh.......

 

Thanks,
I don’t think I have the original, but I do have another lower that came from the set of EBay forks I bought. It’ll have to be cleaned up first, but yeah, that would give me something to check with.

 

You guys bring up a distinct possibility. I have done a lot of sanding and polishing to the lower leg, but I recall seeing and running my thumb over a rather deep Knick in the lower leg. When I removed the old seals, I did not clamp the legs in a vise, I clamped a tire iron in the vise and pried the seal out with the tire iron.

And no, I don’t have or have access to a lathe.

 

Everything is pretty close tolerances, I get the feeling whatever the sticking point is, it’s probably not much.

 

It just occurred to me , to take my good assembly apart and try that tube and try to slide it into the problem leg.
That will tell me if it’s the fork tube or the lower leg, eh? What say ye?

 

Sigh.......I pitched the bad tubes. I couldn’t see a use for them, so they didn’t survive the move to my new house.

 

Yeah, I’ll rummage around through my cabinets tomorrow and see exactly what I have. At least I have an idea now how to proceed.

 

Hey! Look who’s checking in, I’m so happy to see you are still following along! You know that hone idea is definitely worth checking out.

Looking last night on eBay , saw a NOS set of fork lowers! How do they keep unearthing stuff like that? Also found a used one if need be.