$350 to swap fork springs on a zr550??

I seriously doubt it. The picture shows a bike whose weight is 99% on the centerstand. The jack in the picture is only applying enough pressure to the front of the engine area (pipes) to shift the weight toward the rear of the bike. This is pretty much the same thing I did with my bike on the centerstand when I worked on my forks, only I used a bottle jack under the front of the engine. Ed

That's how I do it. I'd never toss my center stand. You could lay the bike on it's side with the tank removed. Sheesh. :S
Steve

OK, think I have a plan. I'm going to lift the front end with my Viper fork stand, slide some 2x4's under the frame, and rest the bike back down on the 2x4's. Should be easy peasy. I'll let you know how it works. There's remarkably little info on the Intertubes about how to lift a bike with no center stand.

I found this on another Kawasaki site
If you have open rafters in your garage get a couple of pieces of 2x4 or 2x6 & put a couple of eye bolts the threaded ones, NOT lag bolts, so you can put a nut on the other end of the eye bolts, & use a couple of ratcheting hold down straps to lift it, couldn't get pics. to post here, so just look at the last post on this thread
www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&...DGU9mVzJcYd908Xzrf1w
Pete

650ed wrote:

Attachment ForkOff2-2.jpg not found

I knew Ed pampered his bike but damn it's got it's own pillow and blanky

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Well, I do read it a story and tuck it in every night. I thought that was normal, but now I'm having second thoughts. :blush: Ed

After fabbing all these comtraptions, its probably quicker just pulling the header.

Bear in mind you might need more than just springs and $350 : top and / or bottom bushings plus oil and a pair of seals and new copper crush washers at the bottom.

You could do this yourself, pvc pipe for an oil seal driver and a helper to compress the fork to remove the bottom bolt.

If ONLY labor was $350, that's a "we don't want to do it" quote.

Any reasonable shop would charge $350 including springs, seals, bushings, fluid and labor.

I find the dealer shops around here aren't interested on working on older bikes and usually farm them out to other smaller shops.

Labor rates around here are $100+ an hour so depending on what is included, it can get expensive quick!