I noticed for the first time today that the speedo drive has one ‘tab’ to catch the wheel but the wheel has two ‘slots’ for the speedo drive, which suggests the drive does not match the wheels. That said, I had the axle only hand tight today and both sets of pinch bolts loose and it was still binding after repeated bounce and pushed against the wall.
I was wondering whether it might be the axle itself - if that was wrong eg if the step in the axle was not the correct length or the axle itself was a couple of mm out that would have an issue. If the speedo drive or the spacer was thinner then that could cause the issue I guess?
Is the threaded insert in the left leg free to move, even with the pinch bolts backed off? You could measured the assembly up. Width between the forks with no wheel in so the forks are finding their own position, then build the wheel assembly up out of the bike, axle, speedo drive etc. And compare the measurements.
It does make you wonder why they are not a pair, I think this could be a clue. 88Sport not sure if you missed my post enquiring about the condition of the chrome faces on close inspection. I’m guessing that you haven’t had them re-chromed so it is worth carefully studying the state of the chrome that enters the tube body on both legs, particularly around the area of binding towards fully compressed just to rule this out as could be a clue here.
All really good feedback guys. I know about one crash in its lifetime, but don’t know why it’s not a pair because the ‘crashed’ forks are still on there. I did see the post about the chrome and it looks same and the binding is at only very early compression, is it identical? No but also both untoward. The thread that accepts the axle into the captive side does rotate if they pinch bolts are loosened. Yesterday I did actually push the axle through the floating leg completely to see if it was locking but it passed through with minimal effort. Even so I completely removed the pinch bolts today when testing. I like the idea of the measuring, Will do that tomorrow. A good friend who is an experienced motorcycle mechanic and enthusiast has volunteered to take a look next weekend and I’m hopeful that will save me! All really good feedback as I say, has definitely made me double check everything. I appreciate your input and I will report any progress.
If you can support the front end under the yoke, unscrew both fork caps so you can move the forks up and down by hand. You can test individually or assemble the wheel and try it as a unit. It’s easy to feel the forks movement that way. There should be enough air gap to avoid losing any oil.
I'm back to post on other things but thought I'd close off this thread. Turns out it was a spacing issue, and a very thin spacer on the RH sorted it but after changing the discs from the rattling old racing brembo floaters and put some new road discs on we had to then remove that spacer and machine down the LH spacer by a 1.5mm and we have it all lined up and working. A side-note, I always thought my forks were the 41mm Showa that have the rebound on top and compression at the bottom, so adjusted them accordingly but never finding an ideal setting. I later discovered they were actually the much rarer ones that have the clickers the other way around. So very happy with how the front feels now.
