YellowJacket! Gets a Major Front End Overhaul Long post- Updated - 8/2/07

[YellowJacket!]

We all know that the front end of the stock 82 is in dire need of improvement in the braking category.  A few ROV’rs  have upgraded their front ends with parts scavenged off of parted out 83’s.  I have taken it upon myself to do just that to YellowJacket! And along the way, photograph and document the procedure.

Here’s some of the parts laid out:


I came across an 83 front end on ebay and bid on and won it.  As it turns out however, the situation was complicated by the fact that it came off a wrecked bike and the fork tubes were bent.  No biggie though since the 82 tubes will work just as well.  I just had to do the extra work of disassembling my 82’s, which I hadn’t planned on.

I’m also including a section on the new electronic gauges that I got and installed.

Gauges:


I started out by jacking up and securing Yellowjacket! To remove the front end.  It’s a pretty simple task of loosening 8 (4 on each side) handlebar hex nuts and two pinch bolts on the lower triple tree.  Before I loosened them though, I used the extra leverage provided by the assembly to remove the fork tube caps.  Its much harder to do when the forks are off the bike, so I suggest loosening them before you remove the forks.

Up on Blocks:


At this point, I also removed my fork brace and my front fender as well as my Shark Fairing.  I left the shark fairing mounts on and took some pictures for those of you interested in seeing how it mounts.

Fork Brace:




Shark Fairing Mounts:








Once the fork brace and fender were removed, I disconnected the speedo cable and unbolted the brake caliper.  I’ll be using the caliper later so I just wrapped it up and tied it hack out of the way until reassembly.  After the speedo cable and caliper were removed, I took the front wheel assembly off.

Spedo Cable: (For Electronic Gauges)


To do a dual brake setup on the 82, you’ll have to remove the plastic cover off the right side of the wheel.  Its just held on by friction and comes off pretty easily.  After removing the plastic cover, I flipped the wheel assembly over and removed the 82 Disc.  The 83 discs are smaller and vented so the 82 is not compatible with the 83 front end and had to go.

OK, done with that.  This is a good time to clean things up a bit and prep them for final assembly.  I cleaned all the bolts for the disc assembly and used POR-15 Metal Ready to remove the rust from the disc bolt retaining clips.  Since they were still useable but kind of cruddy looking, I gave them a goat of “aluminum” spray paint. I also polished the exposed metal on the wheel. (darn, that means I’ll have to do the rear one as well)

With a bunch of help from Lucky, we got the 83 Fork Tubes disassembled.  I’ll also be replacing the oil and dust seals on this project since the “new” forks were leaking.  Both sets of seals were pretty cruddy. (thanks Lucky for the seals too)
We had to make a special tool to remove the damper bolt from the fork tubes.  It consisted of 2”X3/4 bolt, two ¾” nuts and some electrical tape.  You screw the two nuts onto the bolt and then tape it onto a ¾”socket and insert the socket into the fork tube.  It fits into the top of the damper rod and holds it in place while you loosen the 8mm hex nut at the bottom of the fork.  Once the 8mm hex bolt is removed, the fork tubes and the damper rod assembly slide apart.

Tool:








Since I’m replacing all my seals, I gently pried out the dust seals with a strong flat blade screwdriver.  After removing the dust seals, I could visualize the oil seals and the retaining clip…its sort of like a wire with bends in it to allow it to expand in the notch in the lower tube to hold the oil seal in place.  I very carefully removed the clips, cleaned them and set them aside for re-use.
I also cleaned the sludge from inside the tubes (uppers and lowers) and it was at this point that I discovered that the upper tubes were bowed….CRAP!

Since the lowers were all scratched up, I borrowed an idea that I saw in Brian Moffet’s “Vision Rising” post.  I used some chemical stripper called Tal-Strip (the stuff I used on my tank) to remove the old scratched black paint.  It made very easy work of the job and all the paint and crud was completely and quite easily removed from both forks in about an hour.  After the chemical process was done, I rinsed the tubes off with water and thoroughly dried them inside and out.

Removing paint:


Shiny:



Next, I painted the tubes like Brian did with black “appliance epoxy”.  It went on quite well and took a couple hours to dry to tackiness (instructions recommend a full 24 hour dry time before reassembly). As usual, on damn curious fly had to land on one of the tubes and get stuck, so I had to gently pick it off and touch it up.  They turned out REALLY nice…..I think I’m going to end up doing more “appearance work” on the rest of the bike next.

Painted:




While I was waiting for the lower tubes to dry I installed the rotors on the front wheel.

To Be Continued……   ;D   8)

David

[louthepou]

Don't forget to tap the threads before reassembly! :)

(fender mounting holes)

Nice paint job. Appliance paint: creative idea.

Lou

[h2olawyer]

Now that it's too late, QBS had a great idea for the fork lowers.  He glued a piece of bicycle tire innertube around the front half of each lower.  It helps prevent chips and is barely noticeable.  Not sure exactly how he did it - maybe he'll post the procedure.

The fork lowers look teriffic!  I've been considering stripping mine down & then going with some of that fake anodized paint that's available.  Not likely very durable, but it could look pretty cool.  May try some of that clear adhesive auto bra material as final protection.

H₂O

[YellowJacket!]

Don't forget to tap the threads before reassembly! :)

(fender mounting holes)

** Thanks...Wasn't thinking about that but I will Do it

Nice paint job. Appliance paint: creative idea.

**The Creativity Award goes to Brian Moffit/DeadDirtyVision/Vision Rising  ;D

Lou

[Brian Moffet]

As usual, on damn curious fly had to land on one of the tubes and get stuck, so I had to gently pick it off and touch it up.

What is it about forks and that paint. I had to repaint one of mine 3 times because of various problems (the bracket I was to hold it collapsed and it fell over, etc...)

Looks good Dave!

Brian

[don_vanecek]

Nice article Dave, it takes a bit of work and planning to post these kind of articles. I'm learning and hope to do a nice job on whatever future article I may do-well I guess I am working on a 25th anniversary ride article-hopefully I will have it out by September.

If someone wants to do a nice article on valve adjustment please do so, that's one of my next major projects (when the riding season is over).

[YellowJacket!]

Nice article Dave, it takes a bit of work and planning to post these kind of articles. I'm learning and hope to do a nice job on whatever future article I may do-well I guess I am working on a 25th anniversary ride article-hopefully I will have it out by September.

If someone wants to do a nice article on valve adjustment please do so, that's one of my next major projects (when the riding season is over).

I have a MS Word document dedicated to the job.  I type as I go and editi it before posting it.  Then I just cut and paste into the forum.

David

[Brian Moffet]

**The Creativity Award goes to Brian Moffet/DeadDirtyVision/Vision Rising  ;D

Pretty much my entire frame is painted in that stuff now...  I'll let people know how well it holds up...  Spaghetti sauce seems to clean off it nicely  :o  ;D

Brian

[supervision]

  Those epoxy spray cans are my favorite too, I sometimes use silver   Their easy to spray, with ok results

[YellowJacket!]

Is it the humidity or does it really take a long time to dry?  It has been 24 hours now and it still feels slightly tacky.

David

[supervision]

 it's not the fastest drying, I don't have humidity here..  maybe set it next to a lamp

[QBS]

Here's the tip that H2O was alluding to.  Perpose of the exercise is to keep rock chips from ruining the appearance our lower fork tubes.  Works best with black forks.  Acquire an old ten speed tire inner tube. Cut a section out of it that is about as long as the distance from the bottom of the front of the fork tube to right below the double grooved area of the top of the fork tube.  Cut the section lengthwise along its inside curve.  Dry fit wrap the inner tube rubber around the front of the fork tube and make final cut for length.  Cut clearance areas as needed around the raised fender mount areas.  Do a really careful good job here.  It makes a big difference in the final appearance.  Do one more dry fit for appearance.  Make a mental note of exactly where the rubber will be attached to the fork tube.  Clean inside of tube rubber with soap and water.  Get it really clean.  Do the same for the front of the fork tube. Do several practice attachment runs. Coat the inside of the rubber with rubber contact cement.  Carefully apply the same cement to the area of the fork tube that the rubber will be attached to.  Allow both cement areas to dry to a non tacky touch. 

Now comes the tricky part.  Once any area of contact cement comes into contact with another cement area the bond is instant, immobile and permanent.  So, act carefully.  Starting at the top, carefully place the inner tube rubber onto the fork tube.  Don't worry about the curvature of the inner tube rubber causing wrinkles when its placed in contact with the flat surface of the fork tube.  The cement is very strong and the inner tube rubber is thin and pliable.  Trim off excess at the bottom as necessary.

Use sand paper to remove "flash" rubber from the inner tube rubber for a nice finished appearance.  Paint the entire fork tube(rubber and all) your favorite shade of high gloss black.  Let throughly dry and declare victory.  Now, when rocks hit your fork tubes, they will hit the rubber instead of the aluminum.  Even if they do remove paint at the point of contact, all that will be revealed is black rubber.  The damage will be virtually invisible.    All the Best.

[kwells]

what's a ten speed?

[h2olawyer]

what's a ten speed?

I have two of them hanging in my garage if you want to actually SEE what a ten speed is!   ;D

For those of you too young to remember, ten speeds were bicycles.  Designed for road use (mountain bikes hadn't been invented yet).  They had 2 chain rings in front and 5 sprockets on the rear axle.  The seat was normally hard & skinny.  The one on my Raleigh Record was leather - no padding & no springs.

H₂O

[kwells]

ha..
yeah I actually had a 10speed Jr. when I was about 12.  I used to ride it around while listening to my walkman tape player with U2 Joshua Tree playing....

...still haven't found...what Im looking for.... :P

[don_vanecek]

When the 5-10-15 speed bikes came out with the click-it shifter, oh what, about the late 80's early 90's, gee did they ever become more user friendly!

[Aelwulf]

As usual, on damn curious fly had to land on one of the tubes and get stuck, so I had to gently pick it off and touch it up.

What kind of paint job that fly have on it, did ya have to buff it too? ;D

[kiawrench]

dave,, under the close supervision of vision guru and v-zen master lucky, you have become one with your bike.  ahhh ...it is time for you to buy another and move into the world of modifications as yet unknown to man-- by the way, i still have your oil cooler ,and no place to mail it to!

[YellowJacket!]

I had some free time Saturday and decided to do some work on YJ's front end.
Second Coat of paint is dry on the fork lowers and I started reassembling the forks.  I noticed something different between the 82 and 83 forks though.  the 83 springs are shorter and the spacer is longer than that of the 82.  Once assembled, it all adds up to the same length but I was wondering, since I have 83 lowers but 82 uppers, should I use the 82 springs and spacers or the 83 springs and dampers.  I gould also go with the longer 82 springs and longer 83 spacers for a tighter ride. (I weigh about 190).  I'm also going to go with the Mobil1 0W30 oil in the forks after reading all the past posts, it seems to be the best choice.  I'll go with the fill specs for the 83.

The forks turned out beautiful.  The appliance paint looks really really good which means I'll be taking apart the bike again and repainting it...probably this winter.  :o

I'll have some pics of the forks a little later.

David

[Brian Moffet]

if you need 83 spacers, let me know, I have a set you can have.