Hitchcocks Forum

Hi Guys. My 1996 Bullet (Indian model) has developed a bit of play in the forks – no, not the steering tube bearings. After some 20000kms I guess it is to be expected. Our hosts parts book only shows an upper bush (fork cover bush PN 141427). Is there no lower bush? I don’t want to strip the front end and find I don’t have all the parts because I live far away in a country where even courier services get delayed. But I do need to cure the wander that is developing, especially at speed!

BTW the electronic ignition from BoyerBransden (its a twin-plugged 535cc high compression) works well giving me an excellent slow idle and plenty more power. This is because the sparks are always at the right time and the advance is smooth instead of the advance being challenged, too early and the sparks coming at somewhat variable times (strobe-lit markers show a 10degree wide band instead of a sharp line). Top speed is unknown so far because the handling scares me above 75mph but it will do that easily at half throttle.
Cheers, ChrisD (yes, 75mph at 4300rpm with a 19T drive sprocket, 32mm carb, larger valves and flowed head etc, etc, etc).

A standard '96 500 bullet doesn't have any bushes in the forks. It has two oil seals and a spacer. I'm not sure what that part you linked to is off (maybe goes in the bottom yoke for the fork shroud to replace part 143906).

You can try changing out the seals but if there is a lot of play, it'll be wear on the stanchion/slider. Usually caused by the foks being pulled together before being clamped onto the wheel spindle so they are moving at a slight angle instead of at the "natural" vertical angle.

https://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/p ... pages/1677

Stinkwheel. Thanks for your quick reply. The item I referred to is that in the image you gave, namely item 26.
If this is not a bush per se, then the forks are even worse than I thought!.
I shall consider new oil seals etc.
Cheers, ChrisD

The Indian factory changed the design of the forks to go "bushless" and do away with the separate oil seal holders in the late 1980s, before that they used the old 1954-on Redditch design, our hosts' technical notes deal with both types of forks.

As an aside to our hosts, it's probably time to add a section on the newer style forks (and their variants) fitted to the C5 and later models, they first appeared on Indian Market AVL Thunderbirds and have since been used on most EFI models (Electra EFI excepted) for more than ten years now!

A.

ChrisD wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:58 am

Stinkwheel. Thanks for your quick reply. The item I referred to is that in the image you gave, namely item 26.
If this is not a bush per se, then the forks are even worse than I thought!.
I shall consider new oil seals etc.
Cheers, ChrisD

Yeah, all that does is locate the fork shroud in the bottom yoke.