Righteous 1

Hey guys! I've got seal changes on upright forks in my sleep, but I just recently swapped to an R1 front end and now have a leaky seal. I've heard inverted is easier.....is this true. Any tips before I dig in?

Thanks.

Zuki750

You'll need the special tool to release the lower fork leg from the upper. You can't just slide the seal on like conventional forks because of the part that holds the axle. I've never done either but I can't see any way that inverted could be easier.

lee majors

you should be able to do everything yourself, except compress the springs to put the caps on. its a bitch.

lee majors

don't speak of it if you've never done it

Righteous 1

Gotta get a tool???......or just need extra hands?

Zuki750

You tell me how you get the seal on without separating the legs.

inolen

Only forks I've encountered that I couldn't get the cap off by hand without a tool were a set of 03-04 636 KYBs (I've done f4i, 954 and 05/06 636).

It's been a while, but for that set of forks I believe I just took out the bottom allen, seperated the tubes, swapped out the seals and put it all back and filled them up from the bottom. I just never bled the damper.

lee majors

yeah, don't **** with those small tools though, they don't work. this one the one that you really need, but its dough??

lee majors

gotta bleed the damper if you wanna do it right and have em work properly.
+ the cap isn't hard to get off, its on thats the problem.

inolen

I had a set of 03/04 KYBs that while having someone else pull on the cap and me pulling back as hard as possible, I was still a good inch or two off from being able to access the nut.

f4ibry

i never had too much trouble wit my 929/54 forks...

i did those myself like 3 times...gettin the seal in i used a pvc pipe cut in half ziptied together and it was somehwat of a slide hammmer..


just rip into it man ull be able to do it brotha

zride

dude its seriously not that bad. Done em a bunch of times. Loosen the cap while its connected to your triple clamp. Slide out the fork tubes. Unscrew each cap. Grap a wrench and hold the nut behind the cap while you unscrew the cap from the dampner rod. Push up the dust seal between the fork tubes. There is a circlip behind it. Pop it out. Then pull those bitches apart. You might have to bang em a couple times before they pull apart. Dont worry its all good. Once there apart remove the fork tube bushings from the inner and outter tubes. Inspect them to mae sure the coated surface is not damaged. Remove the fork seals. When replacing the fork seals make sure to use tape to wrap the edges where the fork bushings sit. Otherwise you may damage the new seal during installation. Put on the new seals and dust seals on the tubes so when they are put togethger the fork and dust seals will install in correct order with circlip.. Put the fork tube bushings back like they were. Install the proper amount of new fluid by using a draw off device of some sort or just measure the proper cc. once the new fluid is installed ...pump the dampner rod a bunch of times to get all the air out of the fluid and rebound valve chambers. Install inner tube back into outter tube and either using proper fork seal driver or pvc cut in half drive the fork and dust seals into place. Tighten cap to dampner rod. slide into tube . Tighten cap to tube. and install back into fork bridge.

Righteous 1

Right on.......thanks, guys! I'm sure I'll get 'em knocked out. Spring compression seems to be my main obstacle.

Towlieee

it's easy as hell, just slightly different then conventional

I don't know what special tool zuki750 is talkin about, I use regular old tools and a home made fork seal driver


also on all the bikes I did, compressing the springs was never a big deal... If you wanna talk hard, try putting the caps on my 150f with 1 1/4" preload spacers I added haha

Righteous 1

Ha ha......I was just wonderin if you'ld be chimin in, bro! Just found this quote from you in another thread....

just remove the fork cap, remove the top adjuster, remove the dust seal, remove teh clip holding the fork seal, pop the upper and lower fork apart, take off bushings, install new fork seal, reinstall in reverse order

.......soooo, it really is pretty damn easy if everything goes smoothly, 'eh!?! Not having to pull the allen makes all the difference in the world!

Thanks, bro.