July 25th, 2025
These proved to be especially challenging. I disassembled them but ran into a tricky problem. Here’s the exploded diagram for the front forks:
I refer you to the section indicated by the red circle:
This shows two threaded holes meant to support the front fender. Two holes on each side of the front fender line up with those two holes; two bolts through the fender screw into these holes on the front fork:
BUT! Apparently some overenthusiastic previous owner of the 160 overtightened those bolts. That raised a tiny bump on the inside of the front shock absorber tube. That small bump made it impossible for the shock absorber main shaft — marked “2” in the top diagram — to slide smoothly up and down inside its tube. Over the years, the shock absorber bounced up and down while driving, and it wore a groove in the shaft. I didn’t know this, and when I tried to disassemble the shock absorber, I accidentally rotated the shaft in such a way that the groove no longer lined up wtih the bumps, and I could not remove the shaft.
Fortunately, a wise old mechanic on one of the “old motorcycle enthusiasts” forums that I frequented explained the likelihood of those bumps. I had to use a come-along to pull the shaft out of the tube. Then I found a piece of PVC pipe that was just barely fit inside the tube, and wrapped sandpaper around the PVC, inserted it into the tube, and sanded the bumps down. It took a LOT of work, but I eventually got it working.
Before I got this all figured out, I decided to purchase some old front shock absorbers on eBay for $140. Then I chanced upon an ad in CraigsList for an old CB160 missing many parts, as well as a spare 160 engine and a bunch of parts for a Honda 175, all for the low, low price of $350. It was about 200 miles away, and I hesitated, but my wife Kathy urged me to go ahead and buy it, as it would likely provide plenty more spare parts, which I would likely need in coming weeks, and $350 was probably less than what I would spend replacing other parts. So I emailed the seller, and the next day we drove to his place and loaded up our van with all the junk:
Impressed? It turned out that the shock absorbers on the old CB160 were of the wrong type, because it was a CL160, not a CB160. You can’t see it; it’s underneath all the other junk.
I eventually got the old front shock absorbers cleaned up and reassembled, but I fear that they might leak oil, in which case I’ll have to go to work with the ones I bought on eBay.