Reassembling the Front Fork (Part 1)

Hi

I have taken the motor and gearbox of my WL to Doepie to rebuild and I have managed to refurbish the front fork:

• I started by cleaning off all the rust from the fork.  This might sound easy, but it took several hours - first with the grinder and a fine sanding disc and then with a small sanding bit on my Dremel tool to get into all of the nooks and grannies.
• I then sprayed the fork with the desert sand colour.

• After the paint hardened (it is an epoxy paint), I took off the masking tape and put grease on the fork rod.

• I cleaned the fork bearing cups on the wire wheel.

• I then washed the bearings in thinners to get rid of all the old grease and muck.
• I then greased 15 ball bearing.

• I then inserted the ball bearing cup on the fork rod.
• Next, the fork rod went halfway into the frame.
• Each on of the 15 ball bearings were then carefully placed into the ball bearing cup.

• Once all 15 ball bearings were in place, I pushed the fork all the way into the frame.
• The 15 ball bearings for the upper ball bearing cup were placed in position;

• The ball bearing cup was placed on top;
• The fork rod nut was fitted and tightened (the fork rod nut still have to be parkerdized).