Fork Seal Replacement

Hey guys, my right fork appears to be leaking fairly profusely (pool of oil at the bottom of my rim, can see oil bubbling out of dust cover while I ride)

Well, i went to a dealer and they wanted 50 bucks for fork seals...so i went to ebay and got them for 10 bucks. The dealer also wanted 170 bucks to replace the seals, provided i dissasemble and bring the forks to them first... so yeah.

Im going to do it myself. I did a search and found previous posts on this subject, but im still a little unsure of things. Could anyone give me a run down on the procedure? Maybe with a list of items that I will need to do it? I do have the shop manual, which will be nice to have next to me but still.. I foresee this being a bit of a nightmare. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Loosen the bottom bolt that holds the tubes in before loosening tree clamps. Don't remove, just loosen. Otherwise you'll have to find some way to clamp the tube later.

Lay everything out in the order of disassembly so you can put it back together. Do one at a time. If you get the parts mixed up on the first one you can take the second apart and be more careful to line up parts

You'll probably want new dust seals too and maybe retaining rings if they are rusty.

Clean it all up good with kerosene.

You'll need something to drive the new seal in with. PVC pipe, short section of exhaust pipe from autoparts store and return it when done, or use imagination.

You may need to replace the O-ring seals at the top.

You'll need something to measure the oil. I bought a 99cent baby bottle at the drug store.

My first one took 3 hours on one side and 10 minutes on the other. My second one took about an hour total but it was a Yamaha and I had no manual.

Third set took about 30 min.

If the chrome is badly pitted, find some new parts or live with it leaking.


-Duck

I am just about to replace the fork seals also. I can't believe your dealer would want $50 bucks just for the seals, and another $170 to install them after you do all the hard work of taking them off the bike! It sounds like they are trying to take advantage of you big time!

One motorcycle shop I went to told me $55 per fork. I didn't think it was that bad of a price for a shop to do it. I already got a set of seals for $13 at another store. I even got more lucky today, and got a retired motorcycle mechanic to do my seals for $20/pair + one case of beer!

I guess beer goes a long way with some people

I predict the next question is going to be "I got the forks out and apart, now how do I get the old seals out"

Much has been posted on that question

Maybe that should be my next project, make a seal puller and a seal driver

Post edited by: steell, at: 2006/07/26 14:12

del

steell wrote:

I predict the next question is going to be "I got the forks out and apart, now how do I get the old seals out"

The built in slide hammer gets the seal out with a few moderate whacks.

Duck wrote:

steell wrote:

I predict the next question is going to be "I got the forks out and apart, now how do I get the old seals out"

The built in slide hammer gets the seal out with a few moderate whacks.

Not on the early model KZ forks like this one



That's a pic of the 1980 KZ440 LTD forks from buykawasaki.com

Post edited by: steell, at: 2006/07/26 18:25

I got my seals replaced last saturday. It was SO much easier than I thought it would be. The only trouble spot I had was that somebody else must have had the forks apart before because they messed up the bolt going into the bottom of the right fork. After finding a tap&die that was 10mmX1.0 pitch, (hard as hell to find BTW)I got everything back together again.

Congrats!

I did the pair on the 650B this week. Would have gone faster if I wouldn't have had to go out to the farm and fashion a tool to hold the damper rod. Oh well, now I have one more "special tool" for my collection. :laugh:

Oh yeah, loosen the top plug before removing the drain screw. :pinch: Used a bunch of towels after that one.

- Nate >>

Oh yeah, loosen the top plug before removing the drain screw. Used a bunch of towels after that one.

I was changing the fluid in my brother's 82 KZ1000 CSR with air forks and forgot to bleed the air first. My six year old girl was watching me and sitting in a direct line from the drain screw. Covered her with fork oil.
It took awhile before I heard the end of that one

Do you have to remove all cables, instruments, handlebars etc like the manual states, or are there things you can leave on to make things a little easier? I got a quote from another dealer that will do it for 90 bucks, but I still kinda want to do it myself. I just lack air tools, a shop/garage to work in. Experience...

Advanced Auto Parts sells a seal puller for about $10 and it's a handy tool to have. You can do this with the forks on the bike if you put it on the centerstand, remove the front wheel and fender and brake calipers, and remove the bolt on the bottom of the fork. That bolt holds the sliders (bottom part) on the fork tubes (top part). You may need air tools to remove or install this nut as there is no way to hold the inside nut.

It's not bad but can be frustrating.