fork seal brand question

I need to replace the fork seal on my 78 kz650, along with the valve cover gasket. I've been looking around to see who has the best prices, and they range from $11-24 for the fork seals. What is the difference? i don't mind paying more for a product if it is superior, and i don't want garbage in my bike either. I checked Z1E, and obviously they have everything I'm going to need, including fork dust seals. I need advice on what and where to buy if anyone has experience with these type of things. My wife is going to kill me if i keep having to put money into my bike. I guess i'll just have to keep the bills off the credit card:whistle:

The Z1E parts will work fine, and you get to keep shipping costs low by buying at one time.

Put the ball in your wife's court; tell her you can either stay at home working on the bike, or go bar hopping. Let her decide.

just one more quick question since i've never replaced fork seals before. I've been reading up on it a little though. So to break it down to it's simplest, is it basically just:
1. remove fork tubes from bike
2. open forks
3. remove old fork seals
4. drain and refill fork oil
5. replace fork seals
6. replace fork tubes on bike
i know it's more complicated in all the small steps between, I just like to have an overview before I get into something:dry:

I'd use only original Kawasaki seals regardless of price. The way I've done it in kind of condensed form is first loosen the top caps on the forks while they are still mounted on the bike, remove the fork legs, use an impact driver on the bottom allen head screw, (spring pressure from having the forks not disassembled helps hold the bolt from turning), after the allen is out, pull out the tube and take your top cap, spring ect out, remove the dust seals, circlip, and washer, use a seal puller to pry the old seal out, tap in the new with a driver or correct size socket and basically reverse order to reassemble. An alternate seal that may work may be found on another brand bike. You can look in Dennis Kirk catalog and see what crappy seal they sell to replace yours then compare to other motorcycles they list to find models that use the same seal. I found no-one had seals for a KZ1000E (surprise, surprise), but Yamaha Venture seals were the same and widely available for my KZ1000. You shouldn't have any trouble other than loosening the bottom allen or prying out the old seal and c-clips. rest is simple work.

If interested, here's a seal puller tool offered by Z1E:

Seal Puller Tool

Good luck with the repair!

Just placed my order wit Z1E. My wife was more than happy to let me order what I wanted (maybe I should have gotten more:laugh: ) But you guys on here are always so helpful. I am so thankful I found this site. I have so many ideas of what I want to do with my bike this winter, and somehow it seems possible to complete it all.

I hope Z1 sells original Kawasaki seals, otherwise you're going to get very experienced at the job quickly. Last aftermarket seals I used didn't last a week.

del

I don't think they are OEM, but I can't seem to find them on the internet. I'm gonna try these out, and hopefully they work well. I would go to the local K dealer a couple miles away, but I've decided they won't be getting any more of my $$$. If they don't work out, I'll just have to take the hit, and go back to the dealership I went to back when I was a squid. It's about an hour away, but the servce in unbeatable (at least it was.)

del

No, I know. My response was to Ron. I think we started the re: at the same time, but I got distracted by watching "The Biggest Loser" while I was typing.:blush:

del