All 2st bye bye, Showa 45mm: Swap 2000 Marzocchi 45mm to 1994 wxc360

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My threads tend to wander so I'm doing a recap for future generations.

The final swap had these parts:

'00 WR250 Triple clamps and bar mounts
'06 WR250 45mm Marzocchi forks
'07 TE250 25mm axle
'07 TE250 caliper mounting bracket
'05 TC250 front wheel, rotor, and axle spacer
'08 KTM 505sxf caliper, master, and line
'08 WR250 fork guards in black (could not find them in white)


With those parts, it was a complete bolt on.
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The original first post:

Since I was sidetracked on the more general fork swap options thread I started a while back, I have moved my swap thread here.

I'm coming back around to this. I have ridden my 360 a total of 10 minutes since I picked up my ktm, and I was shocked how horrible the stock showas are. They are harsh and blow through travel. That is not a winning combination. I knew they were bad (worse than my 43 wp that are also bad), but the cc 48s on the new bike make the husky seem like a mean joke.

I've decided to go with '00 45 marz from a wr250 for now as I don't want to spend much money on this thing since it is the backup bike. Maybe I'll ride it more with the updated forks. It was said above that I can use the lower triple? I'd like that if possible. I guess I can verify that when the forks get here.

I may be confused, but I think I can use my stock '94 axle/wheel/spacers. I've looked at so many combinations I forget what I found out.

Revised: Looks like I will have to change the axle/bearings/spacers at the very least. '94 uses a very small axle, and these use a 20mm axle until 25mm showed up in '04. I've heard the 20 and 25 wheels can be swapped with a bearing/spacer change, but not completely convinced everything will work easily for this swap. And I don't have any of the spacers for the 20mm setup to use at the moment. So I sit waiting for parts to show up...

I ended up getting the triples with the forks. Also ordered new seals/wipers and oil so I can go through them before I stick them on. Any idea what my brake options are? Will a KTM brembo setup fit or is the husky brembo its own beast? Looking at pics online, '00 husky brembo had a shorter bracket for mounting. That leads me to believe I will have to find an older husky setup. Guess I can try the ones off the other bike if no one chimes in. I'll have to come up with something due to the nissins being on there now. Husky brakes are not as readily available on eBay.

Axle and wheel bearings/seals for the '00 setup along with a front brake assy from an '09 450xc are all ordered. If nothing else, I'll have a spare brake assy for my ktm.

Still hunting/waiting to order the following:
2000 era front wheel and/or spacers
Fork guards
Brembo brake caliper bracket with small mounting bolt spacing
?

BTW, anyone have a set of wheel spacers they can measure? I am not sure how close anything will be to stock with the '94 wheel being used, and I don't want to spend $20 ordering spacers that fit nothing i own. I found a drawing for 2004 cr125 spacers, and I'd imagine the length will be similar.

Uh, nevermind. I just realized I can look at the marks on the axle to figure out where things went! :-)

it's not an easy bearing change and will require machining of custom spacers
I replaced my front wheel with a newer one, bought it axle and all
I had a spare Brembo laying around so that was not an issue, they look to be the same as my KTM but have not tried the swap

I hope to take a look at it this weekend. I'm currently also doing the topend on this bike (waiting on a few parts), and I have to sort some stuff on Yamaha '72 dt250 I just picked up. Not sure I want to make the current wheel not fit until after the engine is buttoned back up. Might be next week before I give it a go

It does look like I'll need a short caliper bracket that KTM never used. Caliper and pads are the same as husky, but bracket is a no go. I can buy a caliper w/bracket for $45ish, but I don't need another caliper. Can also get bracket for oversized rotor for basically same money, but I don't really want/need a 10mm larger rotor.

The husky calipers from the 45mm forks use the small spacing. The 48mm and 50mm forks use the wide spacing. The newer ones will have a hole for a speedo sensor pick up which is nice for installing a trail tech or other unit. You are supposed to be able to swap the wheel bearings and spacers out on the front wheels although I have never done it.

That is what I have noticed about the brakes and what I have heard about to the spacers. We shall soon find out!

the inner spacer would not work because the width between the bearings was different, which also means the outside was different, trust me I tried

That is what I was expecting. If I can get away with only needing to fab an inner spacer and then shorten/extend outers as I'm mocking up, fine by me. I'll plan to make some stainless down the line.

THE PERILS OF EBAY

That isn't completely fair. It could have happened with any used forks. Right fork rebuild went just fine. It had some old oil, but other than that, fork was in pretty good shape. Left fork is a different story. I guess someone attempted some sweet disassembly at one point and didn't do much sweet reassembly.

Unless a husky fairy sends me some parts or another set of forks, this swap is delayed. I've spent too much money this month and will have to stick the old forks back on for a while. :-/

I'll let the pics speak for themselves. The damage:

Now that I'm back shopping for forks, are the lowers on all the 45mm shivers interchangable? I have the 20mm acle thing sorted, but being able to buy 25mm axle forks would give me more options.

Ended up with what I think is a decent pair off an '06. Everything else I saw was over priced, from an mx bike, or from sellers with horrible ratings.

Still hoping someone can give an answer about whether it is as simple as swapping the stanchion from the '00 to the '06 when I do seals. I don't have them here to compare, but if they do swap, sweet. If not, I suppose I'm back to shopping for 25mm pieces.

And so everyone doesn't think I only have catastrophies: the Yamaha dt2 I picked up now has spark! I expect to make a lap around the property this weekend.

What model of 06 ? I would guess they may swap but I would compare them first. I do think I have some 45mm forks that are just parts.

Both fork sets are from a wr250. And I may try to fix up the busted fork, but I've got to stop hemorrhaging money for a bit. Having several projects ongoing makes the money disappear too quickly.

Now that I've decided to go with a complete '06 setup, I suppose I will fix these forks and try to find a new home for them. The chrome is in really good shape, and I'd hate to scrap them. I guess I need the entire cartridge assy. If you have the cartridge pieces that you would be interested in selling, shoot me a PM.

All done. Actually had it done for a few days, and I've ridden around the yard and down the street a little. Plan to do a decent ride on Wednesday if the kickstarter shows up tomorrow. I've been push starting it since the kicker split in two.

I settled on black fork guards since I can't seem to find them in white. New black ones show up thursday. I have not gotten around to ordering it, but I'd also like to pick up a front number plate for woods riding.

Anyone out there want to trade the IMS oversize tank for a stock WR tank? Or have a CR or WR tank for sale? I don't need this much capacity for most of my riding.

Successful test run. I had an upper chain roller explode, but other than that, everything held together and worked as it should. The chain smacking the bare ball bearings on the roller did have me concerned for a bit.

I posted a recap of what parts I used in the swap in the first post. Sure would have been nice to find everything in one place, but I'm happy with how it turned out.