Hitchcocks Forum

Well I've gone round the houses on this one... Turns out my '59 'Bullet' was actually registered as a Clipper. Last night I decided to have a look at the forks as the lower tubes were a bit tarnished. I was going through the parts books and finally realised they are Clipper forks (also fitted to the Crusader). They don't seem to have any sort of hydraulic damping a la Bullets, but there is an oil level screw in the tubes and a drain stud in the bottom. I can't see any way to get them apart to clean inside - any ideas? There is no collar to unscrew on the tubes, the only clue seems to be a bronze bush (?) at the top of the main legs that seems to be brazed in? If so, what is the oil in the legs for?

The oil in the legs is for lubrication, which, as you have no bushes but just the steel stanchion running directly on the alloy slider, is vital! The Clipper forks are an odd hybrid, Crusader lower parts and springs but a different longer stanchion and extension tubes to make the springs long enough. This may be what you are seeing in the top of the stanchion. To dismantle unscrew the whole leg, remove the axle clamp at the bottom and the stud in the centre should knock up into the slider. Heat the alloy in this area well before you do, the interference fit stops oil leaking in use so you want to preserve this. For cleaning, you could also just unscrew the spring from the bottom scroll, which might be better, you'll see how this works from the top scroll on the spring. Have a look in Tech Notes here, I think there's a section on a 250 rebuild, the forks are very similar. HTH.
REgards, Mark