you looking for parts 8 &9?
Honda Motorcycle 1982 OEM Parts Diagram for FRONT FORK | Partzilla.com
David Silver Spares USA - 51415-469-003
David Silver Spares USA - 51414-469-003

 

I've got the Chanellock brand snap ring pliers with interchangeable tips and have found they work pretty well (including on the fork snap rings). I've also used cheaper ones where the whole "jaw" is interchangeable and I would definitely not recommend going that route

 

Thank you for the responses everyone. For posterity, I went ahead and found a fairly equivalent set of mini snap-ring pliers. I will report back on if they were able to do the job.

As for the bushings, thanks for the link. They are now ordered and I also bought back rings just in case as they are an inspection item in the FSM.

SideCar,

Thank you for the link, that is one of the items I had read through before embarking on this journey. Good info, we will see if I can take the reading knowledge and apply it to the real world.

Off to buy PVC to prep for the spacers as I would also like to avoid the use of air.

Besides mineral spirits to clean are there any other chemicals I need which have not already been mentioned?

 

The snap ring pliers you linked should do the job but if you are near Harbor freight you might want to check what they have too (I'm quite happy with the ones I bought at Princess auto about 10 years ago and both chains carry similar quality). You will eventually need at least inside and outside snap ring pliers in both straight and bent (4 pliers total).
They won't work for your forks but I've found a set of mini ones useful too on occasion if you can find an inexpensive set like this (sorry, PA don't ship outside Canada but this will show you what to look for)

https://www.princessauto.com/en/4-pc-mini-snap-ring-plier-set/product/PA0008415168

Personally, I don't like Chanellock snap ring pliers. After messing around with them at work and incurring multiple minor hand injuries when they didn't grip their tips properly I convinced my boss that they were dangerous and he replaced them with fixed tip snap ring pliers. I think they are one of those things people either swear by or swear at.

You may find this useful

How I service forks (long) (worthwhile)

I posted this on the forum many years ago but it seems our administrators can't be bothered to bring back the forum archives that have been missing since the forum's last software change so that thread is one of many that have been lost. Fortunately, I saved a copy locally so I'll post it again...

www.cx500forum.com

And if you want to firm up your forks a bit without investing in aftermarket springs you should consider adding preload spacers. If you use this calculation you can tune the spacers for your bike with your weight on it.
FWIW, I got fed up with checking the air pressure in my forks and messing with a hand pump when I let too much air out trying to measure the pressure so I took the calculation a bit farther and eliminated the need for air pressure.

How your suspension works

motorcycleinfo.calsci.com

Also, I am not a fan of having the forks connected by an balance air hose. I understand that they did that so that lazy people don't have to measure each fork leg's pressure individually but if the seal in one side fails both sides lose pressure. When I hit a pothole on my GL500 (must be about 20 years ago now) and one seal popped both sides lost pressure and the suspension collapsed. Fortunately I was only about 1/2 hour from home and the bike had a sidecar (= won't fall over) but with the forks bottoming over every little bump it was not a pleasant trip.
Soon after I got rid of that balance hose and I did not miss it at all.

 

That's all you need for cleaning the insides of the forks. The outsides came from the factory with clear coat so if it is in rough shape you may want something that will remove it while they are apart

Those snap ring pliers are a bit smaller than my "regular" ones and a lot bigger than the minis from Princess. They look nice in the pics.

 

As a quick follow-up, not all the parts have arrived so I was not able to tackle fork rebuild. I will update when I have all the parts and can start.

 

As I am awaiting parts, I keep reading other threads and rereading the FSM. A few more things have popped into my head.

• do I need the O rings for the air valve if i am not planning to utilize them given the switch to pvc spacers but will still be using the caps?
• with the previous point are there non-valved caps for the forks that can be used in the aftermarket?
• I keep reading about a copper crush washer vs o ring but the FSM does not seem to address this. Are there other parts that could likely be damaged that I should order ahead of time so I do not get into the middle of this project and have to leave it sitting because failing to prep sufficiently?

Obviously getting a little anxious as I want to ride the bike and limit downtime, but with a blown oil seal I do not want to ride it until that has been addressed.

Thanks for the read.

 

The threads for the valve stems on my CX650E forks are M8 fine; I'm not 101% sure but I think you'll find that the ones on yours are probably the same.
When I first added the spacers to mine it already had separate valves for each leg and I just left them in case I found I needed a bit more support. When I replaced the fork oil a few years ago I replaced the valve stems with M8x1.0 bolts.
more details here:

Eccles: The Never Ending Build (retroactive to 2006)

Eccles is the CX650E based winter machine that I drive to work every day in the winter. This is the latest pic I have of Eccles: A few weeks ago, during yet another thread hijack :rolleyes:, I wondered if I should start a retroactive build thread for Eccles. Well here it is, going right back...

www.cx500forum.com

I added copper crush washers to seal the heads of those bolts but the only copper washers on your stock forks will be the ones on the drain screws and the bolts in the bottom (right above the axle) that screw into the oil lock piece inside the fork.

Note that if you are planning to do away with the need for air pressure you need to make the sag measurement for the calculation with the valves &c in place but no added pressure. Note also that it will require a lot more force than normal to get the caps to screw into the tubes.

Most of the times I've rebuilt forks all I needed was suitable suspension oil (I use 50:50 ATF and motor oil), new seals and some mineral spirits for washing the old stuff out. Maybe I'm not picky or maybe I've been lucky but I've never had to replace the bushings or any other internal parts.
Come to think about it I do remember having to order circlips once when the old ones were so rusted one of the loops was missing.

 

Well currently a third of the way in. I have the forms off the bike and disassembled. Hitting a snag before calculating spacers and that is deleting that air hose that combines both forks. Sidecar I looked at my air hose and I believe you are correct M8-1.00, however the shortest one I can find is an M8-1.00 x 16 but that 16 is twice the length of that of the air hose it’s replacing. Since I cannot find bolts any detriment in just reconnecting the hose once I am done?

 

Could you not cut the m8x1-16 bolt to the length that you require, assuming the the thread runs the length of the bolt.

 

That is exactly what I would have done if I didn't make my own M8x1 bolts.

FWIW, here's what I did. Some years ago I bought a box of of 5/16-18x1.75" bolts on sale (I still have most of them) so I cut a couple of them off, cleaned up the ends and cut new threads with an M8x1 die (it's a good idea to have a metric tap & die set if you are going to work on motorcycles).

 

Sidecar,

Thank you for the info.

As a follow-up on those Snap ring pliers I identified. STAY AWAY!!! I bent the tips on all four that came in on the first attempt at removing the circlips. Wrong intended use maybe? I ended up going to Lowe's and bought a cheap pair that worked well enough.

Forks have been disassembled, cleaned, and I have gone through assembling and disassembling several times to better commit the process to memory.

While the process of assembly and disassembly is easy enough most of my time has been spent preparing workshop surfaces of contaminants(use the same area for woodworking), and the largest portion of time in designing and creating the tools and fixtures necessary to work on the forks, this includes:

• Wooden jaws for metal vice - (sounds trivial but I spent the time to custom fit to the vice so I do not have to fiddle with them when holding up the fork to clamp down on or worry about the evenness of pressure applied to the fork tube.)
• Oil seal driver - ended up using 1.5" Schedule 40 PVC - (several trips to the hardware store, no PVC was the right size so had to find an old grinder to taper then end to fit correctly)

Currently in an indecision-holding pattern regarding whether to cut the springs as the desire to ride is large with this being my first bike. PArt of me just wants to put them back together as is and ride. I have been going through the worksheet calculations for the spring but have not completed them as there seems to be a wide range of variability in how to take the measurements which could lead to tolerance stacking, causing the cuts to be incorrect.

I have ordered some copper crush washers to replace the ones for the bolt at the bottom of the fork along with some O rings for the fork caps and potentially the valves on the caps if I end up sticking with the air system.

Anyway, I will update again once a decision has been made regarding whether to cut the forks springs or not. Thanks for the help so far guys!

Edit: Updated the word fork to spring so as to eliminate confusion.

 

I think I mentioned having a wood jawed carpenter's vise (Dad was a cabinet maker) in my fork servicing write up. When we moved here and I built the mechanical shop in the garage I promised myself I wouldn't take anything greasy into the basement shop. So fat in over 2 decades the only exception has been motorcycle forks and I made sure they were clean and I didn't spill any of the oil.
Before we moved here I just put whatever scrap wood would fit between the fork stanchion and the mechanic's vise. An inexpensive set of plastic soft jaws would be better but I didn't know where to get them before the Internet.

Re contaminants, the bench in my garage shop is an old laminate countertop so I can clean it well enough with a rag and mineral spirits. Even so I like to spread fresh newspaper on the bench whenever I work on something like forks or brakes.

 

I've got a pile of vinyl wall base samples that work well to pad my vise.

 

Yep. Anything that lets it keep the part from turning while protecting it from being marred by the jaws.

 

Okay so I have moved forward with the Spring Calculations according to the worksheet. Below are the numbers I got for the corresponding letter identifier. When it came to calculating f, things got weird when taking the measurements as instructed for the progressive springs you can see what I measured was vastly different from the calculation you can do. Since that occurred I kept both but identified as such along with the subsequent calculation involving item "f". I assume my springs are stock because they look identical to those in the service manual small coil spacing at the bottom large coil spacing at the top.

My main issue is how little of the spring I am recommended to cut. The average values supplied in the worksheet were for 450mm springs where they cut off 35mm worth of coil. From that it would seem on springs that are 50mm longer I would need to cut off a larger amount of coil to keep the amount cut to total free length the same between the different length springs. Obvioulsy there is something I am not getting here so as seen I cut the spring by ~21mm and stopped. Please note the small measurements were taken with a good set of calipers and each measurement was taken more than once and in more than one spot to help ensure accuracy.

I would appreciate any input y'all can provide if my numbers look weird or my calculations are off.

EDIT: I updated measurement C as I forgot to include the decimals. Updated subsequent calculations involving C ,those being E, F, H, and I

a	4 mm
b	69 coils
c	504.875 mm
d	276 mm
e	228.875 mm
f	Measured = 5.63 e/b = 3.317 (both in mm)
g	150 mm
h	78.875 mm
i	Measured = 13.976 e/b = 23.779 (both in mm)
j	26 coils
k	2.6 coils
l	21mm was roughly 2.6 coils, when measured with calipers
m	didnt calculate as mine had a small spring with no spacers, but it was just within the limit specified in the service manual
n	Have not created yet
Desired static sag	37.5mm

 

I don't have time to wrap my head around this at the moment but I notice that at least one of your calculated values is incorrect (e=c-d and since both c and d are whole numbers e must be too) so please check your maths.

 

Sidecar,

I appreciate you even taking the time to reply. Good catch! I failed to inlcude the decimal value in C. It now reads 504.875 mm.

Edit: Originally stated .825 for the decimal but changed to correct decimal to .875

 

OK, that looks good to me.
If your forks did not come with a spacer (usually a piece of tubing about the same diameter as the spring) the value of m is zero.

Cutting 21mm off of your springs and adding a 46mm spacer sounds reasonable to me.
Re step #17: I don't know why anyone would consider using a Dremel (or similar tool) to cut the springs unless it was the only option. If you have a choice an angle grinder with a cutoff disc is faster, easier & safer (the disc is far less likely to break and flying pieces injure you). Whichever tool you use wear safety glasses.

Fork oil will not affect the static sag significantly so I recommend re-assembling them per the instructions but without oil and verifying that you have achieved the desired sag before you add oil to the forks in case you end up needing to cut the springs again.

 

Okay, I know it has been a minute, but here it goes I finished the rebuild of the forks. First off, I would like to thank everyone responding to this forum. It has been very informative and it would have taken much more pain and effort to complete it had y'all not participated. If you don't want to read everything I get but figured I would document it for posterity's sake. The bike is now much better in the front. While still plush I can now tell what the front wheel is doing and is much more confidence-inspiring. Please note I do not have all the tools in the world and made due with what I had so as to keep cost low.

In summary here is what I did:

• Disassembled the front end of the bike
• Forks pulled apart and reassembled several times to ingrain the diassembly and assembly process.
• Installed new fork bushings as mine had actually worn through the coating
• With help from SidecarBob and the suspension calculation sheet, I cut down the large spring and ground down the top and created spacers per the worksheet that had me at the correct sag.
• Installed new oil seal and dust seals
• Deleted the air system by using 8mm fine thread bolts using O-rings and copper crush washers to seal.
• Filled both forks with 20W Belray fork oil
• Reassembled the front end of the bike which required me to bleed the front brake (that was the easiest part)
• installed new o-rings and copper crush washers in all applicable points

Things I had to make or modify to get the job done:

• Wooden jaws to fit my metal vice. Allowed me not to have to worry about holding the fork and two pieces of wood at the same time. Basically, worry-free clamping of the fork tubes.
• First couple of sets of circlip pliers failed. I ended up going to Lowe's and got a cheap pair but had to keep bending the tips inwards to grip the circlip long enough.
• Creating an oil seal driver from PVC. Proved to be more difficult as I could not find any PVC piping that had both matching inner and outer diameters of the fork lowers and fork tube. Had to carve and sand down one end of the PVC.
• A new mount location for vice had to be drilled out to allow me to put pressure downward on the forks due to the added length from the spacer requiring much more additional force.
• Sourcing, cutting, and grinding 8mm bolts to the correct length to fit in the 3 air ports of the fork caps. I had no power tools for this and a dull saw.

The scariest part of the whole thing was getting the fork caps back on. This was due to to the lack of feeling with the amount of pressure applied could not tell if I was cross-threading the fork caps which would have been easy to do.

Again thank you to this forum and those that contribute and let me know fi you have any questions.

Edit 1: Removed redundant sentence.

 

Well done.