I saw a post on another MC forum I belong to that mentions a product popular with farmers and people that use equipment with a lot of hydraulics that will fill any pits in the cylinders, I'm tying to find it and I'll post my findings when I locate it.
I know some people have had success with using epoxies.
Resourced from the CB1100F forum.
Here's a pretty good technique and product to repair pitted forks that will last better than the epoxy method and look better too. From "Tourmaster" (Bob) at the Custom site. Reposted here with his permission. I really like the Cigar lighter idea for a torch, great idea. I think some smallish fine files would also help the process.
Tourmaster wrote:
Okay Gene, here goes ... our local bike shop repair guy (Hugh), who I have a lot of respect for, was very forthcoming concerning his "Pitted Fork" repair weapon of choice. Hugh has in the past used the epoxy trick, but later found that the farm and heavy duty equipment guys were repairing their pitted hydraulic cylinders with something a little more robust ... and just as easy to apply. Since using this simple product(s) over the past several years, he has had no returns from his many customers.
I took some, rather crappy, photos of this stuff at his shop this morning. It's actually a solder/braze like product that is simply melted into the offending pit area. Here's the photo of the container that holds several of the solder like wires.
Product Name: Cronabraze 92C CW1020 Acid Core
And here's the solvent/flux he uses to first prepare the area.
Product Name: Cronasolv Eagle F930
Hugh said that the supply company he gets this stuff from is Lawson Products ... here's the link:
http://www.lawsonproducts.com/website/m ... enDocument
NOTE: In the photo showing Hugh's example, he was actually able to get the wire in shorter lengths contained in a smaller tube, rather that a large roll as shown this this catalog shot.
Here's their catalog for the specific items including the solder/braze wire:
http://www.lawsonproducts.com/webapp/wc ... GSOLDERING
And next the solvent/flux:
http://www.lawsonproducts.com/webapp/wc ... 2CPOLYMERS
I actually had a chance to watch Hugh do the repairs to my GS1100 fork tube, which had one pitted area. Hugh's method of fork tube pit repair generally follows these simple steps:
1) In my case I actually had removed the fork tube allowing him to lay it flat on his work bench
2) First clean off the offending area with a general cleaning solvent to get rid of any oil and debris
3) Using very fine emery (ie; crocus) remove any potential raised burrs, but leave the depression area of the pit as is (ie jagged)
3) Quick flush cleaning of the area again
4) Apply the flux product
5) Preheat the pit area a bit and then using a simple cigarette lighter torch melt a very small amount of the Cronabraze solder/braze wire into the pitted area.
6) Allow the area to cool and then buff the excess solder/braze material away using, again, very fine emery cloth ... buffing to a smooth finish.
7) Reassemble and cruise for many happy years of NON-leaky forks
The cost of refurbishing and rechroming heavy duty equipment hydraulic cylinders have driven machinery companies to find simple and cost effective repairs, that will stand up to the riggers of the construction and mining industries. Since these are certainly more demanding applications than us lightweights cruising around on our 750's ... I like the approach.
