Fork alignment tool
AssigneeMotion Pro, Inc.
InventorBob Thompson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tool is disclosed for alignment of forks in a wheeled vehicle. The tool includes a plurality of connecting members, each having a receiving cup, which is configured to receive the curvature of fork tubes of the forks of the vehicle, and a slide bar which attaches to a portion of the receiving cup. The connecting members are held in slidable relation to each other by at least one fastener when the fastener is loosened. The fastener can be tightened to lock the connecting members in fixed position relative to each other to capture the spatial separation dimension between the forks at a point along their length. Also disclosed is a method for achieving parallelism of forks in a wheeled vehicle.
Claims12
A tool for alignment of forks in a wheeled vehicle, comprising:
- a plurality of connecting members, each having a receiving cup, which is configured to receive the curvature of fork tubes of said forks and a slide bar which attaches to a portion of said receiving cup, where said slide bars are in direct contact with each other and are held in slidable relation to each other by at least one fastener when said fastener is loosened, and where said at least one fastener can be tightened to lock said connecting members in fixed position relative to each other to capture the spatial separation dimension between said forks at a point along their length.
A method of achieving parallelism of forks of a vehicle, having an axle, and an axle clamp having pinch bolts, where said forks include a first tube and a second fork tube, and triple clamps including a top clamp:
- A) providing a fork alignment tool having a plurality of connecting members, which include a first receiving cup, and a second receiving cup, which are configured to receive the curvature of fork tubes of said forks and a slide bar which attaches to a portion of said receiving cup, where said connecting members are held in slidable relation to each other by at least one fastener when said fastener is loosened, and where said at least one fastener can be tightened to lock said connecting members in fixed position relative to each other to capture the spatial separation dimension between said forks at a point along their length;
- B) loosing said fasteners so that said connecting members are free to slide farther apart or closer together and placing said alignment tool against said first fork tubes in proximity to said top triple clamp;
- C) holding the alignment tool square to the forks and tightening said fasteners to capture an initial measurement;
- D) verifying that the initial adjustment is correct;
- E) positioning said alignment tool in proximity to said axle;
- and
- F) tightening said pinch bolts of the axle clamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.