What you need to do it right - 50Stunt or Fast50 HD fork springs - Delron bushings (guides) - all the slop will be gone.

 

Piston slides should help... CHP and other vendors have them.

 

Replacing the guides should have tightened up the suspension unless the fork legs are also badly worn.

 

The guides were really loose on the fork legs. I bought the ones listed for my bike. I wonder if the fork legs are some strange aftermarket? I will have to try the piston slides but is there any way to make the guides tighter? Will I have to find a way to machine some from a chunk of plastic?

 

If the guides are sloppy in the fork housing you could try wrapping the OD with electrical tape to get a better fit.
Something tells me that you have the wrong guides though.
Maybe post a picture?

 

Electrical tape. Really?

 

Are you positive the play is in the forks and not coming from the bearings in the steering stem assembly?

If it is the suspension bushings causing the problem then it can only be a few things.

1) you ordered the wrong part
2) they shipped the wrong part
3) the hard anodize coating has worn off on the inner diameter of the fork legs causing the sloppy feeling. There is no real way to fix this. You could send them to get re-coated but the cost would be more then finding another set in better condition.

I don't see an easy way to fix this if that's the case. Trying to thicken the bushing is going to cause you more binding problems then solutions because the hard anodizing doesn't wear evenly. Like the bottom of the tube may be fine but the middle is worn and a larger diameter now then the top and bottom. A larger shim will work in middle only and bind up in the bottom or top.

Again this is my educated guess I am not there to see the product.

 

I will try and take some pics once I take it all apart again. The slop is definitely in the forks you can see it when u push on front end. I will double check my eBay order and get back to you. Are the guides different for different years?

 

Here are the ones I bought. Front Fork Forks Guide Bushing Set for Honda Z50 Z50R CT70 XR50R CRF50F I FK09 | eBay

They are supposed to be correct

 

They are aftermarket china parts. Correct Honda ones are still available for about $6 more. The delron bushing I mentioned above are vastly superior to the Honda bushings. Lets see a picture of your fork legs and if they are badly worn. I have seen the delron bushing improve badly worn legs.

 

Do you want the pic after I pull them out or while on the bike? Can I remove them without having to take the fork tubes off the bike? This would make it easier since I would not have to redo the ball bearings in the steering.

 

Yes. Just slide the leg assembly out of the tubes. No need to remove the forks.

 

I got the forks torn apart. The new guides i bought were way too big. There was so much slop. The bars seem to be in pretty good shape, you can still see the chrome. Should I just order some oem guides or go with the delrin? If I get the delrin where should I purchase them from? Thanks for the help everyone.

 

You can get them here

 

Nice! Do they charge much for shipping? I will have to order them soon.

 

I am in the process of rebuilding my entire front end. You have got them apart, which is the messy annoying part so might as well do it right. Delrin bushings are a must. TwoBrothers, Fast50s, Tbolt, and others sell them. 100% a MUST. They really do a great job. While you are in there, install those upper bushing/collars as well if you dont already have them. Not sure what you currently have but a spring upgrade might be a good idea as well to firm things up a bit if you are an adult rider. Lastly, tapered neck bearings are a good idea to install. You have it all apart, better to get it all done at once and then never have to think about it again.

 

Thanks for the info. I am ordering the delrin bushings right now and I think I can get the upper collars from my local bike shop. The springs seem good especially since they will be for a smaller rider. I put all new ball bearings in the neck when i put it back together and they seem to work great. Plus, I only pulled apart the forks without taking the whole assembly off.

 

Sounds like you have it sorted then.

 

66Cooper: I've read and been told here multiple times that there are no tapered bearings available for the 69 Z50's, I'd love to upgrade to those, are you aware of a set that works?

I'll be rebuilding my 69 Z forks probably this spring, good advice on the bushings and such everyone!

 

Hopefully it all works out. I will let you know when the bushings come in and I put it back together.

 

No tapered bearings will fit a hardtail(repro hardtail frames can take them) due to the fact the races sit on top and bottom of the headstem rather than inside the headstem like a softail, you can used crf50 style caged ones though

 

The delrin bushings helped a lot! Still a tiny bit of slop that I have determined to be worn forks. Definitely better and very useable now. Someday I will replace everything but for now it's good enough. My mini make over is complete if anyone is interested in pics?

 

If grabbing the jz style "anti rattle " piston slides as above in post 3 ...make sure you get the longer roll pins to suit them as well ..

An old trick if your fork tubes are worn inside was to unscrew your fork leg collets , draw the white bush / guide down ,,,,,then cut up a beer can and wrap that arround the white bush / guides ..
Slide it back up into the fork leg and do up the collets .

Bush mechanics bodge .

 

The uses of beer cans are plentiful!! I've seen racers use them as head gaskets on cars in a pinch. One team ran for 6 hours like that. Ha