XJ650J Fork Rebuild - Could I have Missed this Part???

My current forks were somewhat pitted so I picked up a replacement set. The new pair came off a very low mileage parts bike that was missing the motor but in pristine condition otherwise. I knew I was going to rebuild these new forks so I was more interested in their cosmetic condition. Nonetheless, I bounced the front-end a few times just to make sure nothing internally was seized or broken before I removed them - everything seemed fine. On to the rebuild....

I got the first damper bolt out without too much of an issue. When I broke this first fork down I found someone had filled it with transmission fluid so it was probably rebuilt at some time. I thought the second fork would follow suit but had a nitemare of a time breaking the damper bolt loose. I finally had to use some heat. When I broke this second fork down it looked as if this one was untouched / unrebuilt - it was filled with normal fork oil and had locktite on the bolt treads.

At this point I reasoned whoever had these forks before me probably couldn't get this damper bolt out and so only rebuilt one of them. If this wasn't bad enough however, when I went through my parts I noticed that the fork that was rebuilt was apparently missing the taper spindle. Is that even possible? I would think that I would have noticed something wrong with that fork while it was still on the parts bike. I scourged my work area but it was nowhere to be found and I'm sure I would have noticed it.

Did someone really mess up this last fork rehab or am I just losing it??? Wouldn't missing the taper spindle really screw up the fork?

Thx

 

could be that is why a low mileage bike lost its motor and became a parts bike
which part on diagram?

 

According to your diagram the missing part was item #5 - the Damper Rod Seat. Not sure why I called it a "taper spindle" - now I'm really confused... =(

 

could it be in the bottom of the lower fork tube

 

Trust me, I looked everywhere for it. Just figured I would have heard a clunking or noticed a difference in height when I first looked at these forks and bounced the front-end. Maybe it would have been noticeable if you could drive the bike.

At this point I guess I just have to write it off as some knucklehead working on it (or at least one of the forks) before me.....

 

I can see you could miss that part. I just rebuilt my forks last week and they were both stuck in the inner tube. One ended up falling out where I had then sitting. I have two extras if you need one.

 

Check and make sure it isn't stuck in the fork lower

 

use a rod to check the depth of the 2 tubes

 

I just stocked up on brakeclean and will be cleaning all these parts in the next few days in preperation for the rebuild. I already got the kit from Len. I'll be sure to double check the inside of the tubes (again).... Thx

 

If you cant find the damper seat their should be one in your old forks