narrowcase front forks

[3564cam]

Dear all,
I am in the process of rebuilding the front forks on my mach 1 and wondered if there are any tweeks or mods that i can do like to the valving,oil viscosity or spring rates or do they work just fine if left standard?Any tips greatly appreciated
Steve

[Jordan]

I think you can play with the little steel balls that form the one way valve system for damping. It's been a while, but I remember that some forks I'd seen inside had differing numbers of the balls.

Jordan

[spaynenda]

Right your are, Jordan. Jim sent me a central column so I could salvage the stop ring, and the unit he sent only has six holes. The ones fitted to my '62 200 GT have nine. I recently bought new balls to use in the re-build, trying to upgrade everything I can in the process. Not sure if you can drill out a six hole valve, but there is room to do it on the one I got.

My challenge is to re-insert the valve with nine balls without having the tool shown in Figure 108 of the shop manual.

[Jon Pegler]

I know this is an old post, but has anyone got any ideas about improving the rebound damping on the early 31.5 mm forks.
I would also like to see a drawing of the valve block with 9 balls.
I have a 1964 set of these forks that has the valve blocks almost broken up.
I was going to make a replacement pair of valves but wondered if anyone out there had any suggestions for improvements.
If not, a drawing of the original would help in the machining of a new pair.

Jon

[joe46ho]

Jon, Ill have to look at my n/c 250 scr forks to see what type they have, but if they are the 9 ball type i can draft a scale drawing of them, I realize you may have seen these but guzzino does sell them. $89.95 though...

http://www.guzzino.com/dufodavaki31.html

Joe

[Jon Pegler]

Thanks for that, Joe.
I am a bit reluctant to spend $90 and then get them shipped to the UK and then get hit by customs for the duty payable on them.
I don't see too many problems machining a pair of valves up myself, it's just that the ones I have are really too damaged to be able to work out what the original dimensions were.
Despite having a number of Ducati singles, I only have two with the 31.5 mm forks.
A scale drawing would be helpful, as would any other suggestions for improving these forks.
Has anyone done any experimentation opening out the holes in the damper rod and using heavier weight fork oil?

Jon