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Pitted stanchion

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Sload
World Chat Champion



Joined: 28 Aug 2011
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PostPosted: 18:05 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Pitted stanchion Reply with quote
Just an opinion from those who have dealt with this. Fed up of messing with oil seals and poor braking due to oil leakage.
Purchased some unpitted top condition used replacement forks for the bike, and they are pitted. Needless to say I cannot return them now.

https://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s12/TrIcK361/Speed%20Four/468943_10151356787476706_1521310096_o.jpg

That is one of the stanchions I have attacked with wet and dry 1200. Im thinking time wise to sack it off and get it either re-plated or just change the tubes. Re-plating is about £140ish from philpots but I could get replacement tubes for £200 from wemoto. Thinking

Has anyone had any good luck with the re-plating, I'm talking a good few years worth or should I just throw some more money at and get the new stanchions and gator the bugger up?
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Poseidon
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PostPosted: 18:13 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
I used araldite and the "Stinkwheel" patented method for sorting out pitted stanchions. I took the bike off the road 12 months after doing it and the seals were still tip top! (even made it through an MOT without so much as an advisory!)

stinkwheel wrote:

You can do a bodge repair on pitted forks that is very effective although not all that aesthetic.

Firstly, clean all the rust off, down to bare metal, make sure you get rid of any flakes of chrome and scrape the rust out of the pits with a stanley knife blade.

Degrease the stanchions thoroughly using a solvent, you must completley remove all traces of oil clinging to them.

Now get some Araldite epoxy resin, it is improtant to use the original slow setting stuff (now marketed as precision?), NOT araldite rapide which absorbs water and swells over time.

Mix it up and skim over all the damaged parts of the fork stanchions, try to use as little as will fill the defects whilst still having it standing a little proud of the surface.

Leave to set for AT LEAST 24 hours.

Now using progressivley finer grades of wet and dry paper, polish down the araldite 'till it is perfectly smooth and level with the rest of the chrome surface, finish off with a cream polishing agent like autosol then a wax polish.

This works, I have done it many times. The critical parts are 1) How clean and grease free you get the surfaces. 2) The amount of elbow grease expended polishing.



From here

Obviously not a permanent fix, but will buy you quite some time whilst you figure out which way you want to go.

If you are dead set on replacing them, I would spring the extra quids and get new. Seems daft to spend so much getting old (and possibly bent etc) stanchions redone when new are not that much more.
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STONEY!
Brolly Dolly



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
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PostPosted: 18:21 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
I wouldn't go for new stanchions myself, they are usually pattern parts made where all pattern parts come from...China and one thing the Chinese are well known for is..........Poor Chromework.

I have first hand experience of the wemoto replacement stantions, I bought an nsr125 with a set that had been fitted less than a year and they were awful, Chrome was very thin and already flaking off.

If you get the original stanchions re-chromed at a decent plater's they will be of far better quality, possibly even better than original depending on the original manufacturer.
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Sload
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Joined: 28 Aug 2011
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PostPosted: 21:07 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
STONEY! wrote:
I wouldn't go for new stanchions myself, they are usually pattern parts made where all pattern parts come from...China and one thing the Chinese are well known for is..........Poor Chromework.

I have first hand experience of the wemoto replacement stantions, I bought an nsr125 with a set that had been fitted less than a year and they were awful, Chrome was very thin and already flaking off


The wemoto stanchion supplier is these guys, apparently located and manufactured in Italy https://www.tarozzipaolo.com/inglese/home.htm

I would happily get them re-chromed as it is just surface pitting, but not willing to touch ABE based on another thread here. The funny thing is they get praise on the net, hence the query Confused

Also supplied here https://www.squaredeals-ltd.co.uk/triumph-tt600-2000-01-paolo-tarozzi-replacement-fork-tube-price-per-tube-16501-p.asp

Edit, just found this about ABE as well Shocked
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STONEY!
Brolly Dolly



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
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PostPosted: 21:47 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Im sure the reciept for the ones on the nsr I had called them something horribly chinese sounding lol, either way Im not sure italian chrome will be all that good either, had a couple of bikes with paoli forks where the chrome has failed.
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mentalboy
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Joined: 05 May 2012
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PostPosted: 21:53 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Poseidon wrote:
I used araldite and the "Stinkwheel" patented method for sorting out pitted stanchions. I took the bike off the road 12 months after doing it and the seals were still tip top! (even made it through an MOT without so much as an advisory!)

stinkwheel wrote:

Acetone + epoxy + wet and dry



From here



This was a trick I learnt in the mid '80's. Works for me Very Happy
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ian505050
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Joined: 27 Oct 2010
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PostPosted: 22:16 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
buy some rust eater and use a copper wire brush and it should get rid of that. The copper wire should be hard enough to get the rust off but not too hard to dame the chrome finish.
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sickpup
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Joined: 21 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: 22:47 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sload wrote:
I would happily get them re-chromed as it is just surface pitting, but not willing to touch ABE based on another thread here. The funny thing is they get praise on the net, hence the query Confused


The Irony here of course is who does the hard chroming for ABE <hint>Its one of the two big fork rechromers</hint>

Sload wrote:
Edit, just found this about ABE as well Shocked


Found out what?
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jjdugen
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PostPosted: 22:53 - 28 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wet n' dry until smooth, then some very silver spray paint. Rub it all off with fine wet n' dry. Fills the rusty bits and lasts for ages.
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Sload
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PostPosted: 01:00 - 29 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
sickpup wrote:
Sload wrote:
Edit, just found this about ABE as well Shocked


Found out what?


Missed the link, here https://www.hondahornet.org.uk/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24819

Pinch of salt included.

sickpup wrote:
The Irony here of course is who does the hard chroming for ABE <hint>Its one of the two big fork rechromers</hint>


That is interesting if accurate.

The companies that keep popping up for re-chroming are these two:

https://www.hardchromeplating.co.uk
https://www.pittedforks.co.uk/
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sickpup
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Joined: 21 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: 01:23 - 29 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sload wrote:
Pinch of salt included.


Now I've never had a problem with ABE and I have used them on and off for about 19 years.

I find it very strange that a mechanic would build a set of forks with new stanchions and used bushes. I have recommended more that once that when people replace fork seals to do the bushes as well let alone when the stanchions are replaced.
As the bushes are softer than the stanchions what tends to happen is tiny bits of detritus get embedded in the bush and damage the stanchion.

As to the spring being upside down that would make absolutely no difference to the fork legs performance and in fact I couldn't tell you which the right way up was. Fork spring seat is in fact the spacer seat, another screw up but not safety critical.

Oil level out by 100mm would not make the fork unsafe, just a bit bouncier. Yes a screw up but no real safety issue, I doubt it would be noticable.

Rust spots are a quality control issue I agree but then my 4 year old Kawasaki ER6 forks are covered with rust. Unfortunately even hard chrome plating doesn't seem to last the way it used to. I wonder if this is because so many prep chemicals have been banned over the last couple of decades?
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Sload
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PostPosted: 15:08 - 29 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
sickpup wrote:
Now I've never had a problem with ABE and I have used them on and off for about 19 years.


Re-chroming or replacements? Half that blokes issues will not be a problem as I can do that myself, it's just the piddling pitting.

Might order some bushes as well then, cheers for the tip Thumbs Up
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sickpup
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PostPosted: 15:58 - 29 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sload wrote:
Re-chroming or replacements? Half that blokes issues will not be a problem as I can do that myself, it's just the piddling pitting.


Replacements and discs.

Keep the stanchions cleaned and oiled and they will last forever.
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moppy
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PostPosted: 17:37 - 29 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Got the same problem myself. I've splashed out £100 on a pair of forks on eBay, we'll see if they're any good or not.

HCP want £160 to rechrome a pair of stanchions, but that's obviously only if you take it apart and give them the stanchions separately. Seems more than a fair price and if these forks I've just bought aren't up to much, that's what will be happening.

Heard too many negative things about replacement stanchions and surely the investment into rechroming will last longer than any new stanchions?

ABE only offer a 3 month warranty on their stanchions which seems pretty piss poor to me.
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cb1rocket
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PostPosted: 22:15 - 29 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
I got ABE to do my forks, and yes they weren't brilliant. Started rusting after a month!
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Sload
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PostPosted: 07:29 - 30 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
cb1rocket wrote:
I got ABE to do my forks, and yes they weren't brilliant. Started rusting after a month!


They are definitely off the shortlist if I decide to re-chrome. Started attacking them and it has started to improve, it just takes so long by hand and patience is a quality I need to improve. I'm pretty sure the pits are all smoothed on the top now, you can run the flat of a stanley blade across all of them without snagging, but it still snags using the tip which is unavoidable.

Clean and degrease, then may apply some chemical metal on one leg as a tester.
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mentalboy
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PostPosted: 08:27 - 30 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
You need to use an epoxy based filler, not a polyester based one.
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Sload
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PostPosted: 18:11 - 30 May 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Managed to get hold of araldite standard which is long set epoxy based, I think its the same stuff as the the precision from checking so should do the trick.
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Sload
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PostPosted: 20:54 - 17 Jun 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well rebuilt with new seals, bushes, washers, replacement sliders with free adjusters. Picked the best two of the four stancions I have and did what I could. Levelled, and then air gapped correctly, compression and rebound set to stock. Just had a good 100 mile run and it doesn't feel like it's trying to kill me finally. Hopefully that's something else knocked off the list for now.

Although I tracked down the knocking at the front, my floating disks have a lot of play in the bobbins, FML Laughing
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Old Thread Alert!

The last post was made 12 years, 242 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful?
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