Help, for forks’ sake!
I wonder if you could help me with an appeal to all your wonderfully knowledgeable readers for assistance with a problem I seem unable to resolve with a C15 rebuild?
Other aspects of the rebuild have gone very well but I am unable to find a solution with regard to front fork oil seals. The bike appears to be an early 1959 model, frame number C15 444, and I am assuming that the forks fitted thereto were the ones with which it left Small Heath. They are of the type fitted with the restrictor rod and originally had a single oil-seal (40-5049). As I understand it, BSA made a modification and two seals were fitted later, contained within a holder that comprised two sections pressed together. Such a holder is fitted to my forks.
To save time and trouble (wrong!), I bought a new set of holders complete with seals, but the thread on these was different from the ones fitted to mine, despite all other dimensions being the same. I have been able to remove the old seals and, in theory, could simply fit new ones… but it seems to me that they would need to be fully flexible, i.e., no metal surround, in order to fit within the holder which is no more than a threaded tube. Thus far I have located seals of the correct dimensions, but these are metal backed and therefore would not flex sufficiently to fit inside the holder. Given that new holders of the same dimensions are available with seals such items must be available, but where I have yet to ascertain. I am at an impasse, despite hours online – given the popularity of the model, there must be a solution!
If your readers could advise me just where I am going wrong, where I may obtain the correct seals, why there might be differences between the threads on my fork legs and those on the replacement holders, or whatever else I need to do, I would be most grateful. I may be contacted on roy.omb@gmail.com