Hitchcocks Forum

The forks on my '61 Crusader are worn, why not, they are nearly 60 years old. When braking they shudder in their sleeves. Very disagreeable sensation and makes me leave off the front brake some. The oil in there is only for lubrication, no damping in theses forks. QUESTION; Is there some heavy grease stuff that would act as lube and take up the slack between the tubes and the lower fork aluminium tubes. New chrome tubes are available but too pricey to justify. Lower aluminium tubes not available new. Any help?

Not knowing how much of the wear is in the sliders and how much is on the stanchions, you might find a better set of sliders in our hosts' used parts collection. Old stanchions can be reclaimed by precision grinding and hard chrome plating back to the correct size if they're otherwise in reasonable shape.

A.

No, thick grease will not solve the problem.
I would think this is quite a dangerous state to be using the bike in.
You may be able to fit sleeves in the original but it would be quite a job and probably not cost effective.

Thanks , both replies very useful. The wear is small, admittedly, but a definite judder start when front brake is applied. I was thinking it annoying more than dangerous. Handling and corners are fine. I will look into the options suggested.

It is more likely to be a slightly out of round brake drum causing the forks to judder under braking.

It could be contaminated brake shoes.

Hi, check your headraces are not loose as this will cause juddering. Vince

Hi, check your headraces are not loose as this will cause juddering. Vince

Hi, check your headraces are not loose as this will cause juddering. Vince

So, if the drum is out of true,( oval) how does one cure that?