[Hugo Vanneck]

Well, I guess everyone is busy, maybe with something called ‘Christmas’?

Anyway, I’ve found a good photo of a pair of F-frame forks taken apart, which is very useful:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_engineer/6407385995/

I’m still looking and will post any links I find in case they are useful to other F-frame owners.

[Matthew Dunn]

Hi Hugo,
On the same site there are step by step instructions on the procedure which worked very well for me. Once you take them apart they’re very simple.
http://www.bicyclehub.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=114
Flickr seems to be the website of choice for most Moultoneers, I’m sure there’ll be more detailed ones on there.
Matt

[Paul Grogan]

Hi Hugo.
The ‘classic’ Moulton book, pages 112 – 115 has all the suspension parts clearly shown and numbered. The masterclass article was originally written by Michael Woolf of Moulton Preservation fame – so you know the disassembly and reassembly instructions will be first class.
Paul.

[Ian]

I made a very boring video about how the forks go together if anyone is interested. (Things you do on a dull Bank Holiday, eh?)

http://youtu.be/N8UDyTzsqE0

[Hugo Vanneck]

Ian,

Excellent! You are a hero! Thank you for shooting and uploading that very clear, step-by-step dismantling. I’ll post when I’ve tackled mine.

Thanks again and a very Happy New Year to you.

Hugo

[Hugo Vanneck]

Hi Matthew,

Great! I don’t know how I missed that on Bicyclehub…

Many thanks!

Regards,

Hugo

[Hugo Vanneck]

Ian,

I am truly indebted to you! I have just finished dismantling my forks and watched your excellent video a couple of times while doing so. As you so rightly say in your YouTube comments (to me), ‘… not all forks are going to be the same.”

For the benefit of others, who might refer to this thread when dismantling their forks in the future, I will mention my experience.

The head of the long Philips screw driver I had was too small for the rebound stop retaining screw so, rather than risk chewing the head up, I went and bought a larger size. You need a screw driver at least 230 mm long at the shaft. You should then check for play when the tip of the screw driver is in the screw head by turning it lightly cw & acw to make sure it’s a good fit. I wouldn’t want to ruin that screw. I was lucky but it occurred to me in the shop that it would’ve been handy to have the forks with me to try the screw driver out.

Following Ian’s advice, I put my weight on the screw driver as I turned it and it undid easily enough. However, as much as I prodded at the screw with the forks upside down it wouldn’t come out. So I left it.

I had already removed the brake caliper and replaced its bolt with a stainless steel bolt. I removed that and the little alloy cup came out, followed by the long compression rubber with its spring. They just slipped out but the rebound spring wasn’t moving at all. I shone a light down the hole and saw there was what looked like a large, flat screw so I used a large headed screw driver to undo it. It took a lot of effort to get it to turn but it did and eventually fell out together with the rebound spring. Looking at it I realised that it was, in fact, what the rebound stop retaining screw was screwed into and it was just stuck in its hole with the grunge of years.

Ian mentions that he’d ‘heard of people who use a C-spanner and a hammer to release the lower bearing retainer cup’ but that he’d always found them easy enough to move by hand. I’m one of those people and I had to hit it very hard a couple of times before it would start. I then needed to continue using the C-spanner about half way before I could move it on its threads by hand.

The other difficulty I had, lacking a vise or a Workmate, was finding a way to stabilise the forks in order to get purchase on the retainer cup. I happen to have a balcony with buttress pipes about 70 mm in diameter and put the forks either side of one of them, with some wood either side to protect the paint. If you don’t have anything at home, you might consider finding a small tree and using that, taking measures to protect the bark of the tree, of course. Or railings somewhere…

The next difficulty I had was getting the nylon bush circlip off. It was very hard on mine to actually find the gap at all and there seemed to be no room anywhere to get the tip of a screw driver in. Then I realised that by forcing the bush down on the stem you had just enough room between the underside of the bush and its seat to get the tip in. From there on it was very easy.

With the fork apart I poked at the retainer screw from below and it popped out. Like the screw (a nut, really) it screws into, it was grunge keeping it from falling out.

The rest was easy. All thanks to Ian.

Thank you very much, Ian!

Regards,

Hugo

PS Yes, I was impressed by that catch!

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