1982 185s front end swap

[Dukenhime]

Recently picked it up, father in law has 2 83 185s’ around that have front forks with some sort of suspension and the 4 bolt axle retainers. Should I swap mine out for one of his? Mine obviously has just the axle with two castle nuts pressed between the forks and no suspension. Is this an easy swap and worth it?

[350for350]

It would probably be a fairly simple swap if you can get a hold of the entire front end including the fender. If you do attempt the swap, be aware that the stock bearings are ball bearings that will try to escape in every possible direction. My solution for keeping track of them is to wrap a plastic trash bag around the steering stem when I loosen everything up. It usually keeps most if not all of the balls easy to find. The other option would be to buy a tapered bearing kit for All Balls. In my opinion, both the All Balls kit and the front suspension are worth it.

[Dukenhime]

Awesome. I have 2 complete non-running donors so as long as it’s feesible, I’m down to try it. Do you have a link for the all balls kit you mentioned?

[350for350]

No. Look on allballsracing.com. The kit is #22-1002. Or you can go through the whole thing and fill out all of the info. I have a kit on my 250SX and love it. Just make sure to pack the bearings like you would a wheel bearing before you install them.

[Dukenhime]

Hell yeah thank you I’ll order them before I swap. I’m guessing the only thing from my existing front end I’ll keep is just the tire and tube correct? I think the hubs are different

[350for350]

I'm not too up on that. If you can get the entire front end, get it for sure. That way you'll just have to swap over your tire and tube.

[Dukenhime]

Yeah the 83 has a different hub so looks like I’ll be switching tires that I literally just installed 3 days ago lol. No problem, my new exhaust studs will be here tomorrow so that’ll be my task for now. I’ll pull the front ends off and see if repacking the bearings will save me $40 too