Piited Fork Pieces - Useable?

[Lou N]

All,

I'm in the process of rebuilding my front fork and when I pulled them apart I noticed that the oil lock and lower pipe were pitted (I cleaned then up in the media blasting cabinet). Question is can they still be used (there are no cracks just some pitting)? If so should I coat them with something or just leave them in the raw metal state and allow the ATF in the forks to protect the metal?

Thanks,
Lou

 

[Aetsh]

Those do look pretty badly pitted..As long as the seals still seal, I think they'd be fine.

 

[crazypj]

I wouldn't worry about that, whats inside of slider look like though?

 

[Lou N]

Inside of the slider looks great; no pitting or visible damage. The seals were leaking because the chrome had worn off the fork tube. Painted the lowers today and I'll be putting everyting back together next weekend, hopefully. I was a bit suprised at the amount of pitting, but since the part is 35 years old I guess some wear is to be expected.

What about putting a coat of clear sealer on the pitted parts to slow down any future wear? I'm leary because the ATF might eat it up...

Thanks for the replies,
Lou

 

[crazypj]

Nothing touches it when fork is assembled so no need to do anything.
It's probably from condensation/water ingress because of faulty seals.
Just oil it up and re-fit.
I would use proper fork oil or 5W/30 full synthetic engine oil for better corrosion protection