Forks question after new seals/bushings installed

[Earl43P]

My 99 IS right fork leaked, so I bought All Balls seals/bushings and had a guy replace the parts and service with new fork oil. I printed out the service manual instructions for him and he is very meticulous and experienced. He showed me all the old parts (seals were shot, bushings were so-so, could have remained in service).

They are back in the trees, leveled, torqued, etc and I test fitted the axle and find the right fork is longer and the axle won't go through without either compressing the right one ~1/2" or pulling the left one longer by the same ~1/2". (Pulling the left is far easier, btw) Obviously the issue is the left one not fully extended (to me anyway), but I wonder whether this is an unusual condition or should I just muscle the front axle on and go?

I have a little time to wait on an answer since I'm spending the morning de-crudding the calipers and installing pads and whatnot. But I am hoping to be riding it today.....

Mechanic stands by his work and offered to make free fluid level adjustments for ride quality preference.

I did quite a few compressions on both forks before installation, thinking maybe the fluid needs equalized....I had noticed the length issue before installation. Stock springs.

[Earl43P]

 
Appears to have been much ado about nothing.

I started the axle in through the left fork, inserted it through the spacer on the right and let the tire weight hang on the left fork for a short interval and it went through the right fork with just a little twisting and light tapping with a dead-blow hammer, just like every other front wheel re-installation.

On track !!

[bentwrench]

slight adjustments in fork length can be made where the cap attaches to threaded rods inside the fork.

[Earl43P]

Thanks Bentwrench, I'll have my forks guy adjust that if/when we make any oil level adjustments. I'm hoping the oil he chose (and the quantity) makes for a less harsh ride up front.

Well, it was a hot wrenching day but I got the Phat Girl finished up.

Forks installed, front brake pads replaced with a heavy calipers/pistons/rotors cleaning task from the fork oil leakage. Troutdude might remember fixing that leak in Tennessee for me with a seal cleaning...quite a while back, 2 years ago for that FCR or was it the Dam Ride?

Speedo sensor greased, rear brake pads replaced and a lighter caliper cleaning on that one. Adjusted the rear brake pedal lower, flushed out both brake reservoirs and filled with new Dot4.

Kept it on a battery charger all day since it had been sitting long enough to deplete out of the green zone into amber. Cleaned up some odds and ends, found my crackly chrome alternator cover has broken its tab and gone floppy.  Might have to install that David Silver Special soon but I was supposed to heat insulate spray it beforehand so I gotta get around to that.

Took the wife out for Mexican food and now it's raining, so no test ride, which means no oil/filter change. Maybe tomorrow.

So its sitting at 75,808 miles for this go-around. I installed the ATT back in Aug 2016 at 69,xxx miles when the pinion cup and drive shaft went out from the bad seal.  So, I did NOT do the drive-line greasing like I had planned, but it's only been 6000 miles. Too stinking HOT even with the fan blowing right on me.

Anyway, this post is mostly to look back at to remind me what I did / when / what mileage. I'm not good at keeping records and have a history of neglect (3 bikes and sometimes put too many miles between maintenance intervals).