1949 ? Teledraulic fork , No dampening .

[Shelby-Right]

Hi , the forks on my 49 have been apart by the previous owner ! , they do not have the long damper rod ,which i think is correct , no thread on the underside of the top fork nut , although i think these are new , I have changed the oil , only had 15 weight at the time , 20 recommended i think , but i have not got "Any" , not one bit of dampening , it just feels like a Pogo stick , has anyone had this issue ? could they be assembled wrong ? or is something worn . It would be much appreciated , I have been googling , but not easy to find issues on no dampening . Cheers Vaughn.

[SPRIDDLER]

Have you seen the exploded drawing of the forks on pages 50 and 54 in the '49 Owners Manual in the link below?

http://archives.jampot.dk/book/Owners_m ... Manual.pdf

[clive]

Original 49 forks did indeed have no damper rod, instead they had an additional shuttle (aluminium I think) which sat above the steel bottom bush. The shuttle is listed as part number 13347. I assume if you have filled the forks with oil that you have the cone 012954.
The shuttle cannot be fitted to the later fork inner tube as there is an additional ring on the 49 fork to prevent the shuttle rising and the buffer spring hitting it. If you forks have no shuttle nor the additional ring then you have fork stanchions which require a damper tube, probably because the forks have been replaced. If you have got the shuttles in place then the lack of damping may be because you are using "light" rather than heavy (SAE20) fork oil. Resolution may be the heavier oil or if the shuttle is missing fitting damper rods which will also need new top fork nuts or the existing ones machined to take the inner damper rod.
Oh and did you put in the correct volume of oil, it is 10 fl oz on these forks rather than the 6 1/2 fl oz on the forks with the damper rods?

[Shelby-Right]

Thanks guys , I put 9 1/2 fl oz into them ,I have some 20 grade might try it next , I haven't taken these apart except removing top stanchion cap , and I have got that owners manual , so if the oil doesn't work, i will have to get them apart , also would these forks most likely be 1 1/8 , i might have to order some parts . Cheers vaughn

[clive]

9 1/2 is correct if refilling after draining rather than from a dry rebuild. If the forks have the correct top yolk (Aluminium with a four bolt bracket for the handlebar lug and two bolts for the speedo) then they are 1 1/8.

[Shelby-Right]

Thanks Clive, , yes I have that top yoke . So was the slightly later model forks with that really long damper rod , made in 1 1/8 ? Cheers

[clive]

Yes the shuttle ones were only used for a few years (48-50 I think), and the damper rod was used both before and after. I guess you can realise that they were not that successful or they would have stuck with them as they would have been cheaper to produce. Personally when I had a 49 G80 I uprated to the damper rod type but that was more because the stanchions were bent rather than dissatisfaction with the damping. The 1 1/4 forks came in 55 I think.

[Shelby-Right]

Great , well hopefully its got the right bits in there to work good enough , I will try the 20wgt oil and if that doesn't work i will strip them down . Cheers Vaughn