honda fork tubes

do Honda tubes interchange? I have a set of 74 tubes that are rusty
and worn out and have a set of later model ones that use air instead of
oil,same diameter and length,can these interchange? thanks

 

1974 *what* model?

Air-assisted forks still use oil for damping, but they will have a
softer spring.

The only way to be sure that parts from different models will
interchange is to take
the forks apart and compare the pieces, or find somebody who's
actually done the
swap.

OTOH, only two fork manufacturers, Showa and Kayaba built most of the
forks found on Japanese motorcycles, so it's possible that fork tubes
of the same diameter will interchange *to some degree*.

But small differences in the internal parts could keep the fork
dampers from doing their very critical task and you might turn a bike
with cosmetically rusty parts into a death trap.

 

From what bike, Einstein?

And are we talking complete forks, or just the stanchions (as I
suspect)?

As a fork stanchion is litte but a steel.. well, tube, and as the damper
rod will be secured into the lower fork leg, then the answer is
'probably'.