'84 Nighthawk S Fork length

[capt42104]

Hello all!

I am going thru a low mile 1984 Nighthawk S and just started on the front forks and discovered something I am not used to coming across. The right fork FREE hangs about 25mm further than the left.  Is this normal? I am the second owner since new and the original owner had all the work done by various folks and shops with no records. The springs are the same length as are spacers and the springs both protrude the same from the tube with the cap off.

I can see from Honda and Tarozzi the sanction tubes are different and assume this is due to the left leg anti-dive.

Thanks for any input.

Vince

[mollusc]

I remember mine hanging at different lengths, but you can disassemble them to confirm that everything is in its correct place if you are concerned.

[capt42104]

Interesting. I noticed the spacers are different lengths and if use the short one the TRAC (left) leg the compressed spring force would be the same. I will take your advice and disassemble them to verify they are put together right as I did find the spacers under the springs when I took the top caps off.

[capt42104]

WOW! Just disassembled both forks and found most of the damper rods to have the opposite side hardware on them, even found one side of the damper bottom bolt was missing the copper seal washer and the other had 2! I now have the o-rings and copper seals on order. Hopefully having the right parts in the forks will solve this mystery.

Thanks for your advice to tear em down!

[mollusc]

Now that's messed up.  I don't know how anybody could do something so wrong unless it was willful or they had no idea at all of what they were doing.  Would make me a little suspect of the rest of the bike.

[capt42104]

I agree totally and with a little nudge from your response, I went ahead and disassembled the bike to the frame. The sad part is a Honda dealer in FL did the last soft restore in 2018 and it is starting to look like they had the new guy work on it. They charged the previous owner almost $4000 for their "work"! Crazy. I also found the brake master cyl was chinesium. Pretty good copy on the outside, typical garbage in the internals. Thankfully I was able to source a really good OEM unit and with a K&L kit and new sight glass/o-ring it is like new. I removed the swingarm and steering stem to replace the grease and they both had the OEM yellow/clear stuff in em. Smelled like whale oil! Yeah, I am that old. With the forks together (correctly) with new o-rings and a TRAC bushing (cmsnl to the rescue), they match perfectly now in length. Imagine that!

[Willie]

I realize its been awhile since the last response on this thread but I thought I'd respond anyway because of my subject matter. I'd like to know if any 700S owner has installed emulators and Progressive Suspension springs. I put emulators and PS springs in my mid 70's GT750 and was far more impressed with the difference than I'd expected. I can't help but think it'd improve the performance of forks that are 35+ yr old.
As for replacing the rear shocks is concerned..... I have more research to do before biting that bullet.

[Bob H]

As for replacing the rear shocks is concerned..... I have more research to do before biting that bullet.

I don't know if the 700s has different mounts or lengths than the late model 91-2003 NH 750, but I am very happy with thye YSS shocks I installed about 8 months ago.
You can read about them here https://nighthawkforums.com/index.php?topic=96.0

The YSS sales dept in USA was very helpful in making sure the bushings, etc. were correct for my bike, spring weight, etc. Ask for Mike the Mananger.

My front end is stock. Changed the seals and oil a couple years ago and noticed immediate improvement just from the oil change.
I don't ride that aggressively anymore, law enforcement is everywhere. I am OK with the fronts.