How much to replace fork seals??

[Slinn84]

My right fork oil seal is leaking so i need ot get it fixed, not gonna do the job myself as i dont trust myself enuf

gonna take it in tomorrow hopefully but how much do you reckon i will be looking at to pay??

gonna shop round but there's only one garage near my that i trust enuf to leave my dear thundercat with

cheers

[instigator]

£40 perhaps a little more. Depends on how easy it is to remove the forks on that particular bike (do any plastics need taken off) Time is money.

Get yourself a thin metal tube a little bigger in diameter than the fork (the shiny bit that moves, god I can't remember the name) and do it yourself that way. Bit of brute force and it's an easy job.

[Kickstart]

Hi

The seals are cheap (~£10 probably for a Yamaha one), and add a bit of oil. They are probably very similar forks to my FZR600 in which case they should not take long.

Them doing all the work and it is probablya couple of hours labour.

If you can get the fork out yourself you can probably save 75% of the labour.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[White Noise]

doing it on my ZX at the mo, taken out the forks myself and taken them to the garage, he recons £50 parts and labour. (2 X oil and dust seals)
WN
____________________
Buy my wife: 96' Yam XJ600s (Diversion)
Wing Commander White Noise - SE Clique
Riding Tip #86: See God, then back off a bit: Problem is i haven't seen god yet, just a close up of tarmac on revett straight

[instigator]

WN, have you given him the bits yet?

If not, just rip the old ones out (bit of brute force) and put the new ones in with a homemade fork seal pushing device. Bit of metal piping which just fits over the fork internals. That and a hammer is all you need.

https://motorcyclecruiser.com/tech/Forkseal-Step8-lg.jpg

[Slinn84]

its not quite as simple as forcing the old seal out and putting the new one it,
you need ot dissasemble the fork, compress all the relevant bits and unscrew it all just to get it all apart, then all the old bits need replacing and stuff

i wish it were as simple as forcing the seal out and jamming a new one in

i can prolly get the forks off as kickstart suggests, so i'll try that and maybe get to grips with the haynes manual and a few days off work

workth a try i suppose

[White Noise]

[White Noise]

[instigator]

[Slinn84]

i used to use a pretty similar method to get the front wheel up when changing the discs, two car jacks, one on either side of the crankcase

gets it up no probs, but the front paddock stand is much easier
no good for removing the forks tho.

i wanna give it a go but i've read the haynes manual and it seems very tricky to me

having to compress the forks to un-do screws and thread different things in certain places, and alsorts of stuff

on a scale of 1 to 10, how hard would you say it is to get to the seals??

1 being stupidly simple, (eg turning ignition on )
and 10 being the hardest, (eg engine, and gearbox overhaul)

cheers guys

[White Noise]

[G]

I've done it a few times.

First time I needed it done I paid someone to do it. £80 all in.

Next time I did it myself and regretted I hadn't done the first time.


Compressing the springs can be a bit tricky, but usually doesn't take /that/ long. Helps if you have a friend to hold the fork.

If you give yourself a day to do it you should have plenty of time for stuff to go wrong.

[Kickstart]

Hi

USD forks like those fitted to WNs ZX7R tend to be far more difficult to disassemble.

Normal forks are usually quite easy. However from what you say I would guess the Thundercat must have some adjusters on the top of the fork.

Normally crack off the bolt at the bottom, take off the top of the fork, remove the spacer, remove the spring, tip the oil out, fully undo the bolt at the bottom, take off the dust seal, remove the circlip above the fork seal and then just yank the top and bottom apart.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Slinn84]

well i'm gonna go for it
got the damper and pre-load adjusters on the top so the damper needs removing

all very fiddly but i've got all weekend off so i'm gonna order all the parts, dust seals, oil seals etc, then give it a go

cheers for the help guys

[Robby]

If you're patient, a little crafty, and posses a slide hammer and a few self tapping screws you can change the seals without having to dismantle the forks.

Basically get a self tapping screw stuck into the fork seal a bit and tap it out with a slide hammer. Drive the new one in, your seals are changed.

If you have drain plugs on the fork legs that makes the fork oil change very easy. Otherwise you can upend the leg and pump it out. I'd pump it into a measuring device to see how much you get out, and then when you refill it measure the level.