What do I use to clean the insides of fork tubes?

[kev93]

I am rebuilding my front forks and I want to clean all the old gunk out of the fork tubes and the springs and all. What is recommended?

 

[5twins]

I use kerosene.

 

[Purplezinger]

Kerosene

 

[kev93]

can i use Kerosene to clean gunk off of my engine case? or will it hurt the paint

 

[5twins]

You can use it on pretty much anything. It won't hurt paint. It's my main bike cleaner and degreaser. It doesn't smell all that bad and isn't as hard on the hands as some of the more aggressive cleaners. It's not as flammable as some other cleaners either. Oh, it'll burn of course, but it's not really explosive like some can be.

 

[gggGary]

mineral spirits is kerosene with less stink or low odor mineral spirits are nearly no smell at all. What I use in my parts washer.

Use all precautions with flammable materials. Often forgotten; dispose of grease/cleaner rags where they will not burn down your shop if they spontaneously combust. Never had it happen with grease rags. But nearly burned a house with oil wood finish rags and a neighbor severely smoke damaged a house the same way.

 

[Purplezinger]

And for those that don't know Charcoal lighter fluid is repackaged mineral spirits.

 

[kev93]

So it will dry with no residue?

 

[Purplezinger]

Mineral spirits leaves no residue. Kerosene leaves a slightly oily surface. Either will do just fine for flushing forks, cleaning the exterior, washing engine parts and flushing the crankcase. It's not so good for baked on crud and deposits. For that I use over the counter engine cleaners, etc.

 

[kev93]

when i reassemble my forks do the springs and dampeners have to go into the same legs they came out of or does it matter? Sorry that sounds dumb.

 

[Purplezinger]

It's a good idea to to put the dampeners back into the leg they came out of. It doesn't matter about the springs.

 

[kev93]

I think I know which one cam out of which one. What if I did mix them up? What would happen?

 

[gggGary]

Nothing, they are the same part and no one marks and indexes the tubes so it's not like the part wear patterns are matched. No worries. Always a good idea to roll the tubes on a flat surface or on two v blocks to be sure they are straight. If they have a MINOR bend and you decide to use them anyways then you would want to index them so they both have the same direction. Can't recommend this but i would imagine a LOT of tubes have at least a little curve.

 

[kev93]

i guess there is no wear patterns on the dampeners. That makes sense they can go into either leg without worries. The holes in the dampeners do not go a certain way either do they?

 

[blackbetty]

Nope, just drop em in. Are you adding a drop kit or are you just rebuilding these?

 

[kev93]

Just rebuilding them

 

[blackbetty]

Yup just drop them in.

Nobody mentioned this before, but I clean my forks using spray carb cleaner. I'll wad up a shop towel, stick it the top of the fork tube, and cram it down in there with a looooong 3/8ths extension, or whatever you have that'll fit in the tube. Then squirt carb cleaner in there and work the shop towel up and down through the tube. Once you pull the shop towel out, it'll be black, and the inside of the fork tube will be shiny and smooth. Be careful not to mar up the inside of the fork tube when you do this.

I do this with the lowers too, but since I usually wet sand them before reassembly, it's a little unnecessary since they'll be submerged in water while you sand.

 

[kev93]

carb cleaner is ok to use? wont leave any residue? should I rinse with water after?

 

[blackbetty]

Carb cleaner evaporates quickly when it's exposed to air, no residue. I rinsed out the lowers on mine, but not the fork tubes. You can dry everything really well if you have compressed air.

 

[kev93]

thanks, Carb cleaner will definitely be easier to use.