Time to rebuild the front forks.
I bought these new stanchions in 2018 because the price seemed right at £135 the pair.
It’s time to fit them.
I’ll reuse everything else, in the hope that the seals don’t leak and I can minimise the ongoing costs which are already mounting at a fearful rate.
The Left hand leg came apart with minimal issues, although there was no oil of any note left in it.
The hole in the bottom of the leg looks like it had been abused, (perhaps by dragging the bike about on the forks without a front wheel fitted), and needed easing out with a file to let the Allen bolt drop out.
The other leg, The RHS one, resisted all attempts to depress the lug in the top in order to remove the circlip.
No problem… I have, (many), more rusty old forks in the shed. Lets see if there is another Right Hand side LC part which may be easier to disassemble.
<a little later> Well there are a pair of rusty old LC forks, along with the pair of XS500 forks which I used to have on my LC350, and a pair of what appear to be RD400 forks along with a bottom yoke.
Unfortunately, the LHS LC fork has a damaged mudguard mount which will need alloy welding to repair.
But the Right Hand fork appears to be intact, albeit covered in ratty black paint hiding who knows what underneath.
There are however no springs or plugs in the top of the forks, which I will need for the rebuild of course, so it’s back to the original siezed fork to attempt some progress.
The spare forks all return to their shed focused existence.
I filled the well at the top of the original, seized, LHS fork with penetrating oil, and commenced hammering the plug to try and get some of the oil to, well, penetrate.
I did manage to move it a fraction, which enabled me to remove the circlip… but the plug remains obstinately stuck. I’ll refill with penetrating oil and leave it overnight to see if we can make progress tomorrow.
Also on the list for today is attacking the swing arm with a wire brush to return it to a minimally acceptable state for some Bonda Primer and a blow over with black enamel.
I’ll be using the swingarm from the donor bike, as that seems to have better installed nylon bushes, which I’ll attempt to reuse.
Before 
Cleaned 
Primed