U.S.E. Stealth Forks

[cherrybomb]

I had a pair of these back in 1995, purchased to go on a Zaskar I built while at Uni. (Mature student!)

I've been looking for another pair for what seems like ages and just before Christmas these turned up on Ebay

The description wasn't promising, they were seised solid, and knowing how rare they are I didn't hold out much hope of getting any spare parts so they would likely only be good for the parts bin or as wall art.

They were on with a BIN of £75.00 but after an exchange of mails the seller agreed to an offer of £40.00.

I've got to say that I still wasn't sure I'd not paid too much, but the deal was done and it wasn't too long before they arrived at the man cave.

On first inspection it didn't look good. They wouldn't budge an inch and I almost put them aside but I persevered and after several soakings with GT85 and some brute force (really; I thought I was going to destroy them at one point!) they finally came apart.

I was shocked at what I found. Rather than a total disaster the internals didn't seem too bad. Old grease had set like concrete and the original elastomers (same as in their seatposts) were mush but the seals and bushings were saveable. I started to think that all may not be lost….

After some serious cleaning and sourcing some new elastomers I was finally able to put them back together and they worked!!

I need to get some slightly thicker o-rings for the LHS leg so that they hold air (They have elastomers in one leg and air in the other) but otherwise they're working beautifully.

Gil has done a stirling job of reproducing some decals and they're now ready to be used one more.

If anyone has a pair of these gathering dust, or spare parts sitting at the bottom of a tool box somewhere, I'd be very interested in hearing from you.

I've got a set of working forks, but it would be nice to be able to maintain them for a while at least.

Very chuffed

 

[David Gibson]

Very cool.
My resurection stories usually don't end as well.

 

[cherrybomb]

I really thought they were going to be a lost cause.

When they arrived, they wouldn't move at all. On removing the brace it transpired that the left leg was solid as a rock and the right leg moved about 1/2" but was VERY stiff.
After some serious force (both twisting & pulling) and copious amounts of GT85 I managed to get the right leg to move thought all of its travel (about 50mm) but I just couldn't get the lower to separate from upper.
It finally came apart to reveal this paste (which was the remains of the elastomers) and grease like concrete which had been causing all of the trouble.
After the success with the right leg, I realised that I had to stop pussy footing around with the left one and breakout the BFH to beat it into submission. I figured that if the inner workings were FUBAR then a large hammer & block of wood couldn't do anymore damage!

If it makes you feel any better, i've had other stuff which I thought was an easy fix, which ended up in the bin

 

[dyna-ti]

Very cool.
My resurection stories usually don't end as well.

I do like resurrection stories It gives history a new lease of life. Might have found their design life would have been under 10 years but now theyll go on into the future and maybe if looked after ,survive all of us :?

 

[Jacopo.bonato]

Re:

I have one of these curious forks in garage.. I hadn't the time to take care of it yet..

 

[tintin40]

Well done. Cracking job