fork seals ?

[hell yea]

everywhere i look it seas i have to do a compleat tear down of my forks to replace the seal. why can't i just dig out the old one and replace it without separating the upper tube from the lower ? am i missing something hear.

[Marcarl]

Digging out the old one, would put you in high danger of scouring the inner tube and so rendering it useless. If it's anything like the first gen though, you'd be wanting to remove the forks, it makes it much easier,, them seals just don't slide out.

The seal you see is a dust seal, the oil seal is buried well below that, and that is the one that needs to be changed.

[hell yea]

ok fair coment

[MiCarl]

In the end tearing them down would be faster than digging the old one out anyhow......

 

You should also inspect the bushings and replace if they show any wear. New seals on shot bushings will leak almost immediately. Frankly, I'd replace them regardless.

[GeorgeS]

Not possible !! You have to pull out the tubes, Also the Guide Bushing, should be replaced !!!

BE Sure to Order OEM parts !! Especially the Seals!!! DO NOT, get the cheap after market seals !!!! Several people have done that to save $10 bucks, and ended up redoing the job in 5000 miles ( Includeing me !!! )

 

This is pretty involved job, you need some tools, and a place to work. Check the VRTech Section for information, if you have not looked there yet !!

 

READ what there before you start , Order the parts, and get the tools, before you start !!! And best to Talk to sombody on the phone who has ACTUALLY Done the Job !!!!

This is NOT a job you are going to get done in 2 hours, with one pot of coffee, or two beers !!!!

[greg_in_london]

Er - actually changing the seals without tearing everything down, but you do have to separate the forks and slider. The only question is whether you can undo the locking nut for the damper unit easily.

 

If you have the bike SECURELY on the centre stand with jacks under the front of the bike (or strapped on a proper bike lift), then you can try and undo the allen bolts from the bottom of the fork legs with the springs still in place. Sometimes this is much easier than reaching down inside the forkleg with a home-made socket to hold the nut in place from the other end as the spring pressure can help stop it spinning. If it doesn't, then you are no worse off and have to buy/borrow/fabricate a long tool.

 

Obviously you'll find it easiest to unbolt the front wheel & mudguard etc, but you can do the job with the fork legs still in place. The bike just has to be somewhere that no-one else will go near until you have finished because those dampers are fragile.

 

Just remember that both the chrome on those fork legs and the new seals are easily damaged. Soak the new seals in oil and put something over the end of the fork leg, such as the cut-off finger from a latex glove or cellophane, otherwise in some incomprehensible way the seal can get damaged as it brushes past.

 

Mind you, if you haven't done many fork seals before, you are likely to find it easiest to take the fork legs off and do it on the bench. Just don't hold the fork legs directly in a vice and mark the chrome...

[MiCarl]

I find that often an impact wrench will knock the damping rod bolts free. That makes life a lot easier.

 

Steps I'd take:

 

1) Front wheel up.

2) Bleed air from front suspension and open air line.

3) Remove calipers, wheel and fender.

4) Open drain screws (catch basin under forks).

 

** At this point I like to give it some time, preferably over night to drip out. Makes rebuilding a bit less messy.

 

5) Use impact wrench to loosen damping rod bolts (bolts need to be left partially in, reinstall them a few turns if the impact wrench spins them completely out).

6) Remove fork brace (it was left on to keep the lowers from spinning with the impact wrench in step 5).

7) Remove ONE fork assembly and rebuild it.

8) Reinstall first fork.

9) Remove, rebuild and reinstall second fork.

10) Put everything back together.

[Wizard765]

I have watched (helped) Marcarl replace seals many times and just did mine on an 87 last week. We always take the forks out and then after dumping out the spring and spacer etc. Put them in a vice by the bolt holes.. Then using an air impact gun and a broom handle stuck down the fork with a little pressure we remove the Allen bolt from the bottom. Then the dust seal and then a clip. After that a quick yank usually has the whole thing apart. When reassembling we stretch a little electrical tape over the small groove in the upper shaft so that it won't hurt the new seal.

This time doing mine we didn't use the air gun on the first one (maybe got lazy) and tried a small battery impact.. didn't work so we had to scrounge around and make a tool to hold piece in the bottom of the fork to get that bolt out. So bottom line is EVERY time we used the air gun it worked without any special tools... other than a broom handle :-)

 

Oh almost forgot. a small length of ABS pipe that just fits over the upper tube is a great SPECIAL tool for seating the new seal..