Firstly may I wish you all a Merry Chrsitmas and Happy New Year.
I have just had the M20 girders overhauled and told the spring is a 'heavy' guage one as used with a military side car. Not knowing much about this and presuming there is a difference in springs I have a few questions. Would this spring be too hard for a solo machine? Would it be better to find a replacement and if so where? I was also told that if the spring is difficult to replace, cut half an inch off the bottom! seems a bit extreme to me. Finally is there a knack of replacing springs.
Cheers
Pete

email (option): cruaser@aol.com

Pete. I can't remember if there is a heavier spring listed for the side-car outfits. Perhaps Rob Miller or someone can confirm.
We had a batch made by 'Alberta Springs' here in UK. They even hold the original Terry's drawings for the M20 spring. Contact Graham on sales@albertasprings.co.uk

My proceeder for fitting girders is:- Fit the steering stem and roughly adjust bearings. Next fit the bottom links into steering stem and forks. Now fit spring on to fork. At this stage I usually have a pad of news paper or piece of cardboard between headstock and fork spring to protect the paint. Now fit the top of spring into it's cup in the handlebar clip and fit the bolt. Now fit one of the top links and then the last link. Some straining of the spring might be encountered when fitting the top links. Finally adjust bearings and link bolts.
Hope it helps. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Hi Pete, Have you ridden the bike with this spring on? If you have and it felt ok, then use it. If it's original, it's been on the bike a long time, so try it and see how it feels. The chances are it's sagged a bit over the years and is probably fine for a solo bike.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

Thanks for the fitting instruction Ron. I will try this spring as it appear original to the bike but have never ridden so don't know how it dampens or not as the case may be.

email (option): cruaser@aol.com

Hi Peter, The sidecar outfits and solo machines used the same fork spriing (66-5150). Length for the standard spring (before fitting) is 10".
Shortening the spring by 1/2"..?..he's having a laugh isn't he? You would remove the ground, square end and the scroll wouldn't fit correctly, apart from altering the geometry of the forks.
New big end a bit tight?..Just grind 1/16" out of the big end eye.. ...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com