Minor update. The replacement matching forks turned out to be...well, halfway better. One of the chrome upper tubes had the chrome practically jumping off of it. Had to do some mix and matching with fork parts.
What this absolutely confirmed, though, was that the forks that were previously on the bike were internally mismatched. The chrome upper tubes had different tapers on their lower ends, their overall lengths were a few millimeters off when fully assembled and extended, and besides that my (still-original) other fork had more rust than I thought spread over its internal steel parts.
Dad and I went through and picked the most usable bits and threw them together; with lots of polishing and cleaning and tweaking there is now a set of seemingly Pretty Good forks on the bike. Applying weight to them like pogo sticks they seem like they're sliding and springing equally. Also picked up a set of the cheap cartridge emulator valves from VintageCB750 and those installed well enough. I kept the old semi-rusty damper rods in there because now they're full of extra holes per the valve instructions.
Found another problem while in there taking apart the front end: the front rim had a super nasty rust area around the valve stem hole. I was just going to replace the spokes but now I'm replacing the rim too. So the bike isn't back on its own wheel yet and hasn't been ridden since the fork fixes. Rim will be in on Friday and I'm hoping to throw the wheel together that day and ride the bike.
What this absolutely confirmed, though, was that the forks that were previously on the bike were internally mismatched. The chrome upper tubes had different tapers on their lower ends, their overall lengths were a few millimeters off when fully assembled and extended, and besides that my (still-original) other fork had more rust than I thought spread over its internal steel parts.
Dad and I went through and picked the most usable bits and threw them together; with lots of polishing and cleaning and tweaking there is now a set of seemingly Pretty Good forks on the bike. Applying weight to them like pogo sticks they seem like they're sliding and springing equally. Also picked up a set of the cheap cartridge emulator valves from VintageCB750 and those installed well enough. I kept the old semi-rusty damper rods in there because now they're full of extra holes per the valve instructions.
Found another problem while in there taking apart the front end: the front rim had a super nasty rust area around the valve stem hole. I was just going to replace the spokes but now I'm replacing the rim too. So the bike isn't back on its own wheel yet and hasn't been ridden since the fork fixes. Rim will be in on Friday and I'm hoping to throw the wheel together that day and ride the bike.
