Heritage fork springs?

I'm taking apart the forks on a custom bike to have the lower legs chromed and as I pulled the tube plugs I noticed there was no spring tension. Every other fork I have pulled apart of my own has had some spring tension there. It looks like who ever built the bike pieced it together. The springs look like they were cut, and they used emt pipe for spacing. The only thing I can think to do is replace the springs to stock length. I would have to imagine that without that direct pressure from the spring you would get a gap and excessive slaming down when braking. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Yep, I do believe its call preload, depending on how much preload you like, will determine on how far your spacer sits up / out of the hole. I have my spacer setting at about a quarter inch past the threads.

Hope this helps…

Thanks for the input. I just found it interesting that there was so much gap(lack of preload in these forks) The shop that originaly put this custom together is know for piecing bikes together. I made some spacers last night that seem to work out. Thanks.

I think that I would stay away from that shop...