TOPIC:

having a hell of a time getting fork seals (50x38x9.5/8) with rubber sides that has a lip on the bottom to go in without tearing the rubber off. of the dozens of sets i have changed over the years, i've never had this much trouble. should they be steel sided?
one set was bikemaster 429018 and the other was parts unlimited 0407-0267.

Probably a stupid question, but are you lubricating the fork seals before installing them?

Partzilla has the oem fork seals in stock & they have a pic. The Kawasaki dealer should have them as well.



....

are you lubricating the fork seals before installing

you bet. even chamfered the edge of the slider. they seem WAY too tight. i'll do some checking at a local shop and compare styles.

small town blues. nothing available, so i just ordered a couple oem seals. standby

ned37 wrote: small town blues. nothing available, so i just ordered a couple oem seals. standby

Just a WAG here. (wild a$$ guess) Don't the GPZ's have a 40mm fork tube, and the LTD's have a 38mm fork tube? You should be fine if you ordered them by application from a source such as Partzilla, rather than some aftermarket morton claiming "they are all the same".

Without looking it up in a Factory Shop Manual, I believe you need the tool like the one pictured below to install fork seals in the GPz front forks. This tool fits over the inner fork tube and slides down on top of the fork seal. Then you tap the fork seal down into place in the lower fork tube with this tool..

I myself have never installed fork seals in the GPz style forks without using a tool like this. You might get by trying to use a piece of pipe that fits over in the inner fork tube, but not bigger in diameter than the O.D. of the fork seal.

Verde Valley, AZ. You must be dealing with Cottonwood Motorsports then!!!

definitely 38mm forks. the ones with anti-dive and air connections. the new aftermarket wiper goes right in like it's supposed to.
this is a project that was going to take an afternoon and is going on it's second week. i should have known it was going to fight me when one of the bottom bolts wouldn't come out with my 3/8 impact, so i got the 1/2 incher and it promptly rounded out the 8mm allen .
one step forward and two steps back.... but hey, it runs great!
here's a pic of a couple forking attempts.

dr gamma, my tool is the homemade version of that (pvc pipe cut in half, fitted and clamped together) and i've never, up to this point, had a problem.

Same idea!! Should work just like the factory tool then!!!

"You must be dealing with Cottonwood Motorsports then"

i can see their shop from my back porch, but ed carries no oem seals

ned37 wrote: definitely 38mm forks. the ones with anti-dive and air connections. the new aftermarket wiper goes right in like it's supposed to.
this is a project that was going to take an afternoon and is going on it's second week. i should have known it was going to fight me when one of the bottom bolts wouldn't come out with my 3/8 impact, so i got the 1/2 incher and it promptly rounded out the 8mm allen .
one step forward and two steps back.... but hey, it runs great!
here's a pic of a couple forking attempts.

That does look tight in the pic. It shouldn't be too hard to tell if the outer tube inner diameter is the same as the seal outer diameter. I don't have the fancy driver tool either, and I think I also used some PVC the last time I had my forks apart. (the seal was leaking) Possibly a sharp edge on the inner diameter of the outer tube seal area causing it to cut into the seal? Another WAG. lol

Hope you get this figured out my friend.

Here is a snip from my Kz1000 manual for tube components assembly.

it takes a lot more care in getting them started straight than i'm used to, but even if you do, whenever the seal starts to disappear, the outer part delaminates as shown in the bottom seal in the pic. the one on top shows the side just starting to bubble.
inside of the slider seems as smooth as it should be.
i'll see what happens with the oem seals when i get them. weather's crap thru next week anyway.