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I'm in the process of stripping and cleaning the front suspension. I'm wondering if anyone knows if there should be a short spring on top of the main one ?
In the parts manual it shows one with a note various models may have one.
Just curious. Mine does not.
Cheers

Hi, just measured a pair of springs taken from a Mk1 Camel, although yhe correct Piffero type forks I am not 100% certain whether they are standard springs or even original to the bike.

However they have short 50mm springs at the top and long 600mm springs that are waisted with 3 larger diameter areas to centre them in the fork tubes.

Great info. Thanks ! I have a feeling that I should have the smaller 50 mm ones too. Do the just sit on top of each other or is there some sort of keeper ?
Can you post pics ?

Hi, yes they just sit on top and are slightly proud of the fork leg and need to be compressed when fitting the top nut.
Again I am not certain if these forks are original to a Mk1 Camel; on your forks when fully extended is there a gap between the top nut and the top of the spring?

There should be some pre-load on the front suspension when assembled, either by the shorter firmer spring or you could experiment using different lengths of tube spacers.
In the past I've seen after market top nuts for off road Marzocchi forks where you can adjust the pre-load, but can't recall the source.

I've always thought the front forks were really good on the Mk1 especially when compared to all later 500/501 Camels suspension and the only attention they needed were to the seals, oil and closing the air bleed screw when fully extended.
Best fork oil I've used in the Camel forks was ELF Moto F, hard to find at the time and sadly no longer available, there was no rating/detail on the bottles but it appeared thicker than ATF and certainly thinner than SAE 10; I currently use SAE 5.

I have (not measured) about 40mm gap between spring and top of fork. They are getting seals and oil done this week. The guy said just make up poly bushes so there is a 2-3mm of preload.
Will update soon.
Cheers.

The springs in my forks sound just like Ians. I also thought they might be a previous owners mods when I first saw them but I've seen the same in Kanguro forks since then. I even thought the helper springs might be some old valve springs that a previous owner had fitted, now I'm sure it's the original set up. I still haven't got round to trying different fork oils yet-other jobs keep cropping up!

Got the forks back and he fitted (20mm) spacer on the top of the spring. Initial impressions are much better. The 10wt fork oil probably helps a lot as well. Steve, I think the manual says to go for a lighter oil if in cold weather. Being where I am, I think 10wt will be fine.

38mm Marzocchi pre-load cap kits for Ducatis

https://store.bevelheaven.com/Chassis-S ... Marzocchi/
https://www.mdinaitalia.co.uk/079537449_Adjust.html

Very interesting !

Ooyah bewty! Wish I knew how to drive my lathe properly, I could knock those up before teatime!