So, I started prepping the bike to add some 20W or even 30W fork oil tomorrow, along with some PVC spacers.
I've added spacers before on some 550 shocks (with great results), but never on this early style CB500 fork. I decided to do a little reading up on spacer size, etc., and I came across this article:
http://franksforks.com/2016/11/14/1973-honda-cb500-fork-rebuild-franks_forks/ It talked about rebuilding the early forks and, to be honest, I wasn't 100% confident in my work. Especially the part about holding the shaft with vice grips and screwing down the shouldered damper nut.
I decided to take a look and, lo and behold, the LH fork most definitely had the nut loose. Or, at least not tightened down all the way. I could even notice that the cap nut came loose awfully easy.
Decided to wrap some tape on the threaded rod, use a cloth and some vice grips and tighten it all the way down. The LH side moved a good bit. The RH side, maybe one thread.
I had some 15W oil on hand. They used 5.5 ounces of 10W. It's possible that I used up some 10W mixed with the 15W I have. I looked up the capacity in my FSM and it called for 155-165cc (up to 5.6 ounces). I used 175cc of 15W.
I'm happy to say that I think I have cured it. It's at least 96% better, and the more I rode it the better it got. I only took it up and down the road outside the neighborhood for about 2 miles, but I did get it up to 60 MPH. On the first pass, I still felt a little bit between 48-52 MPH. On the last pass, it was almost completely gone. Most definitely an improvement and much, much more rideable now!
