As purchased, the forks on this 850T virtually bottomed out at the slightest weight applied. Besides a complete clean and rebuild I felt that new springs were in order. Given the age of the bike and my own preference for a firmer ride I chose new Progressive springs to match the bike and my weight. Following purchase of the other necessary parts, the cleaning and disassembly began.
I knew that something was up when the left shock dropped to the ground upon removal of the front wheel. There had to be a damper rod issue or a bushing assembly not installed correctly. Further inspection revealed that the damper rod had unthreaded from the rod which is bolted at the bottom of the fork leg. Fortunately not damaged or broken, and easily addressed at reassembly.
Upon removal of the stock springs a few things were quickly evident. First, there was zero oil in either fork as I attempted to drain them both before disassembly. Second, the Progressive spring and the stock spring are 60mm different (420mm stock spring length and 480mm Progressive spring length). Prior to purchase I had spoken with a helpful and knowledgeable guy (sorry, forgot his name) at Progressive who seemed very familiar with Guzzi's from the 70's. This was the recommended spring; since Progressive do not sell direct I purchased the springs through J&P. But while I can just barely compress the new spring far enough to get to the top (bottom) of the damper rod, there is not enough room to attach the cap and circlip. And even if there was, the spring is so compressed as to have no remaining compressibility (made that one up, I think). I will have to contact Progressive for other spring options as these ain't gonna work.....
July, 2016.
While chrome was not planned as a feature element of this build, there are a few parts that will need to either be replaced or re-chromed; and others which could see a coat of paint rather than chrome.
This path began with the bars and the headlight bezel as requiring that shiny touch (headlight bezel had been painted flat black). Another chrome requirement were the instrument bezels and the gas cap; this led to thoughts of chroming the stator cover, and once that was decided, a few other chrome touches were allowable to help balance the look. Geez, I really better stop there. Some tarnished parts, however, really need to be made more presentable, so these will be included. A few others will get a polish treatment that should shine them up well enough.
At this point, I have selected the following parts for chroming and dropped them off at a local plating shop in downtown San Diego:
- handlebars
- instrument bezels
- stator cover*
- exhaust collars
- front fender brackets
Pacific Plating is local to me, and not having ever had to chrome anything before, I went to them for the work. To be updated when pieces are back.
*late consideration to skip chroming of the stator cover; it represents too much 'real estate' on the front of the bike for that kind of shine, and so I contacted the shop prior to completion of the work and requested mild polish instead.
