Topic: 1981 CB650 Standard Forks Questions

[Calaya]

I'm moving forward with the my rebuild project but have another question.  (One, of probably many more to come): 

What is the distance - in inches - from the bottom of the triple tree to the top of the fork seal?  I took apart the forks and, while there are a few small nicks near the bottom, I was told by someone at the local Honda dealer that it should be ok to reuse them as long as the nicks are not in the area of the seal (which may cause them to leak).

Any help you can provide is always appreciated.

T

[irish44395]

I measured my 82 650 nighthawk and got 81/8 inch.
Pete

[DaveBarbier]

If there are nicks or pits, you can clean them out with acetone or something and fill them with superglue, let it cure overnight then use like 400 or 600 grit sand paper to smooth it down to the proper size. Cyanoacrylate resists hydraulic oils and is pretty tough. I repaired some badly pitted CL200 fork tubes this way. Went from badly leaking to bone dry.

This picture has the superglue in it.

[DaveBarbier]

Of course, this will only work for divots. If there are raised parts they'll have to be smoothed down.

[Bankerdanny]

What does "near the bottom" mean to you? And keep in mind any nicks in the tubes need to slide through the new seals at least once during reassembly, so like Dave said, make sure you clean up any nick with an obvious edge (slide your thumb over it), even if it is low enough that it won't touch the seals in normal ops. You don't want to compromise the seal from the get go.

If your old seal is still in place you can reassemble the leg then attach a zip tie tight at the dust seal then slowly pull the leg out until it tops out and measure the distance to the tie. Then disassemble (leave the tie in place) and measure again to see how far below the tie the nick is. Another measure of the distance from the top of the dust seal to the bottom of the oil seal will tell you if there is any danger of the nick and seal touching.