Can't get fork tubes in?

[nychop]

Stem threads on my 41mm wide glide lower trees shit the bed. Pulled out a spare set of trees that I remember was always a pain to get tubes in and out of. For some reason though I just can't get these fuckers in this time. Did i pry them open too far at some point and it's too far out of round? Should I hit it with some heat? Is there a way to clamp them back into the correct diameter? Should i use a small hone and open up the trees a bit?

0fuUPXn.jpg

Side question - the fork tube cap plugs are the same for 41mm tubes 49-77 correct?

fork cap.jpg

[RUBONE]

Were those trees in a wreck at some point? They appear egg shaped. Heat is never recommended on any forging. The factory straightening tools is a solid steel slug pressed in and then clamped tight with a couple well placed whacks to get the material to self adjust. A forging always wants to go back to its original form. The big slugs in this picture are factory tree tools along with that unfinished bottom tree used for stem alignment.

And yes the top caps are the same however original early '49s were different but that cap was the retrofit part for them as well.

[nychop]

Were those trees in a wreck at some point? They appear egg shaped. Heat is never recommended on any forging. The factory straightening tools is a solid steel slug pressed in and then clamped tight with a couple well placed whacks to get the material to self adjust. A forging always wants to go back to its original form. The big slugs in this picture are factory tree tools along with that unfinished bottom tree used for stem alignment.

And yes the top caps are the same however original early '49s were different but that cap was the retrofit part for them as well.

They were! Though it was pretty minor - enough to bend my tubes. Agh yea i think my lower trees are tweaked - i managed to get them in from the top, but the fork tube caps won't align with my top tree. Is there a garage method to straightening my lower trees? or does it make more sense to just shell out for new trees?

[RUBONE]

The trees move pretty easily. The factory tools are crude as are basically all operations on our old iron. The slug was clamped in the tree (an old tube works fine) and manipulated to line up. The blank unfinished lower tree was a gauge to check alignment. See the shop manual (top of page, documentation). The bending bar is as pictured, easy to replicate.

https://www.hydra-glide.net/phpBB3/know ... icle?k=454