bent front fork?

I got this XJ750R from my uncle who passed suddenly. I started playing with it to get it running and road worthy. I put a new front tire on and found out why the bike pushed hard. I went to put the brakes back on (after I had a good talk putting the axle) and one side (right) would not go in without pushing the forks apart. Now the tire has one brake pad rubbing. I also noticed the handle bars appear to be bent. I think the bike has been dumped hard on one side.

Is my fork bent? Do I find new/used, or what can I do to get some riding time in this year?

Before you ask, I am not riding it. I will be asking more questions for other things. This is the biggest one for now.

 

I straighten my forks by running them over with a tracker trailer - yes, I am serious, and now they are fine.

 

Smells like a Bent Fork and Bent Handlebars.
How skilled are you mechanically?

Do you or any of your close friends "Wrench"?

You could be looking at having to replace the Front Fork Tubes and finding yourself a new set of Handlebars.

The Handlebars are the easy part.
The Front Forks are going to take a few hours work.

Your FIRST Move should be to secure a Workshop Manual for that Bike.
The Manual.
Not CD's!

There's a place that will have the Fork Tubes we know of.
Moderator ROBERT knows of this service.
I have never dealt with them.

Buy a Factory Workshop Manual or a Haynes Manual for your Bike and read the section on Servicing the Front Forks and Dampers.
It's straightforward wrenching to do a Fork Job.

It's a little tricky your first time out of the gate.
We'll get you through it.
Go get the Book!

 

First I will say a tractor? Not my first choice.

I can wrench mosth things. I sometimes do not know what to do. I do have the Haynes Manual, but I do or did not know what to look for.

You are saying I can replace just the tube and not the fork? What kind of cost will just the tube be vs some forks on e-bay or chacal? I do need new seals already.

 

Ummmm... Can you elaborate on that? In lieu of a tractor-trailer, do you think a Subaru would do the trick?

 

Both chacal and forks by frank may have your fork tubes for you.

 

with the wheel raised, if you loosen the fork tubes in the triple clamps, loosen the axle, the fork tubes should spin in the triple clamps enough to let you notice the lower leg of the fork swinging in a arc
is the hardware on the axle correct

 

Cnelson, other than a visual que from the handle bars being tweaked, is there any other evidence of a crash? Scraped exhaust, footpegs, turn signals...
It could be that the bent handle bars are the result of a drop, in which case there is a chance that the tubes could be straight and the triple clamp slid. I had this happen on a bike I was twiddling. If you can swing it, follow Polock's advice.
There is a fine writeup that was posted some months back on how to align your forks. Forget who posted it but I'm sure with a little poking around you can locate it.
If the worst case is confirmed (bent tubes), lightly bent tubes can be straightened but they must be LIGHLY bent. Anything beyond a few degrees is a write-off. This straightening must be done by an expert, not just any shop hack. Ask around about who is best at this service in your town. The other option is tube replacement. You can spend a fortune and buy the factory replacements or pay about half that much and have Forking By Frank (thanks Lisa) build you a set. Flea-Bay is good for spares too but it's a crapshoot on getting a decent set. I see lots of "good used sets" with corrosion pits down in the travel area, a waste of money.
Frank's Engineering has a link in our Links section for new parts. Give him a jingle.
Best of luck to you.

 

Maybe, all I know is that the truck was still in the air when on top.

All I did was place a 4x4 on the ground, putting the fork end on it, and the other end on the ground, turned the tube to have the bend facing upward and drove right over (I was watching and telling how far to come etc...) and it worked like a charm. Nothing broke and it was pretty unique lol.

 

A short/small peice of flat plate glass (perhaps 12" long, couple of bucks from the Home Depot "scrap bin") is an easy way to verify whether the tubes are REALLY straight. Plate glass is incredibly level and quite a bit less expensive than a truly accurate (metal, machinist-grade) straightedge gauge.

If you place the glass onto the top, and can either "rock" the glass at all, or can see a gap of any size between the tube and the surface of the glass, your tubes are bent, and should be straightened or replaced. Bent tubes are NOT a good thing!

 

Robert - I did read it, but did not think anything of it at the time. Looks like I have some playing to do before spending the $.
I do have access to a larger flat (gannet) inspection table at my place of employment.

Thanks

 

You will have to pull the forks apart to use the table. Polock's advice is still the cheap and reliable method.
Must be nice to have a flat table available. None to cheap they are or I'd have one at home. Good luck amigo.