Fork Issues

[Bob_Roller]

Not often I make a posting about being stumped on a problem .
I replaced all the seals on the forks on my silver ‘82 LS today.
I spent over an hour trying to get the front axle installed .
Finally I said there is an issue here !!
I’ve had the front wheels off of my R65’s countless times never an issue, until today .
After looking at it closely, it appeared that the hole for the axle on the left fork was too low .
I checked to make sure when I tightened up the pinch bolts for the fork tube, the tube didn’t slide down .
I removed both forks, and to my surprise the right fork is about .5 inches, 12 mm longer the right side.
Upon removal from the bike, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, like the left fork was extended past the upper triple clamp .
I called it a day today at 1930, it was 104 F this afternoon in the garage .
I’ll take both forks apart tomorrow, starting with the left first .
Anyone seen this before??
This is the fifth time I’ve rebuilt forks and never had an issue before .

[Barry]

One possible cause is that a topping out bush has disintegrated and allowed the stanchion to dop further down. It wouldn't quite account for for the full 1/2 inch though but not far off.  The bush is appox. 8-10 mm thick from memory

[Bob_Roller]

I looked at the parts catalog and found parts missing valve washer, and the top out bushings in the wrong place .
Not that this will solve my original problem .
I had the forks completely apart, found the remnants of the original black rubber top out bushing in there .
Got everything cleaned out .
Someone was in these forks before I got the bike, the top out bushings are the upgraded, whitish hard rubber or plastic .
I know this bike had at least two other owners before me .
Also found the brake pads contaminated with fork oil, they both had slight seepage, then developed large leak on my way home from work on last Monday .
The pads were in need of replacement soon quite worn .
I’m going to try EBC HH compound pads, put them on my oil head and was quite impressed with the braking improvement .
I’ve got ATE calipers on the ‘82 LS, from what I can tell, the pads for ATE calipers aren’t available with the HH compound, they do have them for the Brembo calipers .
I messed up getting EBC pads for ATE calipers about 17 years ago, EBC only showed one pad the FA18 for all R65’s .
I know now that this is wrong .
I altered the FA18’s to work on ATE calipers, I’ll do the same with these replacement pads .
So the bike is down for a few weeks awaiting parts .