changing fork seals...

[Hillclimb#42]

With Admin's ok, I will do that on the pics. Thanks for the compliments. I paid to have mine fixed for years, and my guy showed me how to do it a few times, but it still seemed over my head. The deciding factors were, my guy, for one, makes more money on street bike tire mounting, and two, they leaked after a few hard landings or a few months time. I chased around methods to prevent leaks (thread called 'fork seal strategies'), attempted to save money and time by providing my guy with oil and seals, and even volunteered a good mechanic / hillclimber / friend to do them. I have even ridden / raced with them leaking all over putting off the repair. I like doing them myself far better, now. The major downside is...... experts at this service will or should visually inspect internal parts better than anyone that is winging it. 

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There are two alignment bushings. An inner and outer ( a fixed one and a large ring that slides ) They are coated with teflon, I believe, and if you notice these coating are worn off a side or in streaks, you are going to have tolerance issues and they will leak. The fork rebuild kits come with these slider bushings, washers, o-rings, which is necessary on aging bikes sometimes to get them updated. this requires alot more disassembly than I described to replace all seals and o-rings. I do not disassemble the inner rod or the adjuster bodies for seal replacement. The directions in the Clymers are full rebuild instructions, so it seems like a very long technical process when reading about it. Hopefully, I don't need to rebuild them for awhile, since I just did all the leakers over the winter, but I will be glad to help when I do.

[crazyolbastard]

A few tips, ..... loosen top triple clamp pinch bolts 1st, then break the nut loose at the top of the forks, The bottom portion of the triple clamp will act as a vise holding the tube still with no damage or stuggle. you just need to get it to break loose. Back off all of your adjustments, ( you can count and note your clicks, if you want to go back as you were before, or doing one side ) Its alot better to do both sides unless you are sure of the oil weight and amount in them from the previous build, to prevent any imbalance. You need an impact with a 14mm allen head socket, I think is the size, this is necessary to remove the bottom adjuster body.  i use a stif length of wire during re-assembly to keep the inner tube from sliding down, I also use a pvc pipe cut in about half, more like 1/3, for a seal driver. and some masking tape. You absolutely need an owners manual/ Clymer, for the first couple times, and probably again for the next time, if you do them right and it lasts. there's alot of parts that have to be in the right order, so disassemble and lay the parts out logically, but still have the manual for the oops factor.

I remove the fork from the bike after breaking the top nut loose and backing off adjustments.

Remove the top cap of the fork. its still attached to the inner rod on a threaded rod. A cheap flat wrench for a table saw blade is what I use to break loose the nut on the top of the inner tube, but a thin wrench will work good, but you will find that the fork spring's coils are too tight for standard wrench here. Once you work your way thru that deal remove the top adjuster body.

remove the spring. remove the little deal thats on the very inside of the inner tube, there's a long tube about the size of a pencil too, then dump the oil in  a container. use the inner tube to pump all of it out.

lay flat on soft surface. use the impact here on the bottom of the fork to remove the bottom adjuster body. A ratchet will not work. the whole inner tube will spin and not come apart.

pull down the dust seal. there is a big snap ring that holds your oil seal in there. take a good look at how deep the snap ring is down in there, and how it looks when all the way in the groove. It will be important for your new seal to be all the way here when you drive the new one in. 2 small...tiny flat head screwdivers working together are handy for me to remove this ring. One screwdriver is a struggle.

once the snap ring is out, you use the the outer tube as a slide hammer affect to pull the seal. You have alignment bushings that will remove the seal.

Carefully remove the alignment bushing that sets in the groove. Its a teflon coated bushing set in a groove on the inner tube. A flat head screwdriver standard size inserted in the space and gently turned will allow you to slide it up and off the tube. I use some masking tape here in the groove. Sorta fill the groove and cover the sharp shoulder of this alignment bushing groove. Use some fork oil to lube the tube and seals when reassembling.

 The order is critical and forgive me if I get it wrong and I will come back and edit. refer to manual on specific parts order and direction they face  

Slide on the dust seal, oil seal, alignment ring, remove tape, reinstall alignment bushing into its groove...... the tape is just to protect the lips of the oil seal during installation when sliding over the alignment bushing area.

I use a pvc pipe that was cut in half long ways for the seal driver. Your seal needs to go all the way past the snap ring groove. and go evenly as possible. The driver tools work much better, so be careful with the pvc idea. take your time getting the radius right and sanding all sharp corners off of it. damaging the seal is real bummin at this point cause its almost over. get the snap ring in. tap the pvc and seal in with hammer. the seal driver works like a slide hammer. be sure it looks just like it did when you removed it. Its easy to think that the seal is there and not past the ring groove.

 The dust seal just slides up into place with a little bit of a struggle. The bottom adjuster can be reinstalled to the inner rod with the impact. Again the whole assembly spins without an impact or special holding tool.

 I Use the amount of oil required in a ratio cup method also, the amount of Fluid Ounces for your bike is in the manual. pump the rod slowly to get all of the oil in there from your cup. keep pumping till the bubbles stop.

Here's where it gets tricky. You need to put your spring back over the inner rod, and get the inner rod back up to the cap. A stiff wire looped to hold up the inner rod from the inside of the spring will help to keep the inner rod up high enough to mount it. You need to be able to remove the wire, so dont make i too hard to undo. You will probably struggle a bit here for the first couple times, but its the only difficult part.

I like the OEM seals. mainly because I have had bad luck with seals in the past, but now, since going OEM, they last alot longer. got that tip from a local suspension guy. Its not worth getting cheap seals, or old ones, if they dont last all season. I think dirt that has dried to the fork leg or that has found its way past the dust seal is the major culprit in fork seals leaking. That was pointed out to me by a few smart guys here on kxriders. Otherwise, the alignment bushings need replaced also, if there is a chronic problem leaker.

I like 5wt-7wt oil for play bikes. I tried 10, but it was way too stiff for me. Sorry for the book, I have just recently been doing the seals myself and also struggled to get any info. Great advice, from guys on here on every topic, but not enough to understand it until I worked through it a few times with my manual. I have done about 10 forks, so take the info for what its worth. Please feel free to add to or critique my method, It would be good info to have for everyone. It costs me about 50 per side, for someone else to do the job and roughly half that doing myself, so its worth learning.

   

A few tips    lol,
better step by step than than manual I got

[Sapper]

WOW, that was alot of typing. Click, copy and paste is alot easier though. 

Part 1

Part 2