1st timer fork seal replacement

[ptxyz]

i've done this on my klr 650 using a bit of air pressure to pop the old seals. drained the cruddy old oil, flushed w/ atf and refilled to a measured distance from the top. nothing too difficult there.

besides reading the honda service manual, any tips or tricks for the 1st timer?

i've searched some old threads here and found recommendations for oil weight, spring replacement, re-valving etc but, just want to replace seals and oil for now.

i'd been hoping to finally get my bird back on the road after a few months down for dinged wheels (hopped a curb) earlier this week, but found weepy seals and an inside front brake pad that had just worn down to the backing plate (yikes!)...

[Redbird]

The XX has captive slider bushing, which means you'll use the tubes themselves to tap out the seals. Just work the tube like a slide hammer and bump the old seal out. This also means you'll need a fork seal driver (or appropriately sized piece of PVC and a hammer) to install the seals, as the tube will be in the way when it comes time to set them. The old "big socket and a hammer" trick ain't going to work on the XX forks. The damper bolt on the bottom of the forks can be a PITA, sometime the damper assembly will decide to start spinning with the bolt once it breaks loose. At that point the first step is to put the spring and spacer back in, compress the fork and try it again, but it's a pretty good bet you're going to need an impact wrench to get that bolt out if it decides not to cooperate.

Oh, and speaking of slider bushings, you might want to have a set on hand when you pull them apart. Depending on mileage, it might be a good idea to replace those while you've got them apart.

[partsman]

Oh, and speaking of slider bushings, you might want to have a set on hand when you pull them apart. Depending on mileage, it might be a good idea to replace those while you've got them apart.

Second that.

[OMG]

best bought oem or does someone else have them?

[Hobicus]

best bought oem or does someone else have them?

OEM.

[The Krypt Keeper]

making a seal driver out of PVC is easy.

get 2inch or so diameter pvc pipe and can be short as a foot or so. Cut 4 inch or so long slots into the end think I did 8 even spaced slots.

This will give you some flexability on size diameter.. take a big ziptie and tighten as needed to make the end close down to the size needed to fit the seal perfectly.

[ptxyz]

thanks for the tips, gents. i was making pretty good progress yesterday until it was time to crack that allen bolt at the bottom. i lacked a long reach 6mm allen socket and my mickey mouse attempt with the long end of an allen wrench wasn't cutting it. thankfully, eric and the crew at sporttech bailed me out on that step (eric was already doing seals on an old kawi but was kind enough to pause and help me out). like most of the bolts i'm trying to twist on this neglected (mostly by the p.o.s) bird, these were really stuck!

i'll be sure to inspect the slider bushings before i button things back up today. picked up a little trick to avoid damaging the seal during installation; use a piece of plastic bag over the end of the fork slider as a sleeve to protect the inside of the seal as you slide it over those possibly sharp edges.

to avoid taking garage space from the wife's conveyace, i moved my mess out to the patio.

[ptxyz]

yay! it's back together and seems to ride just about how i remember. having ridden my klr the past several weeks has probably skewed my moto-vision though...

the initial test ride revealed a way to stiff front end. i'd finally installed a fork brace (super brace) that i'd purchased several months ago but, man! the binding! i could tell as soon as i rolled her off the center stand. i was only able to compress the forks an inch or so.

after removing the brace, things felt like normal. next test ride felt much better. mostly taking it easy as the pirelli angel gts (free front, thanks pirelli!) needed scuffing as did the pads (all 3 rotors, organic for less than $30?!). after several miles of easy riding i ventured onto the freeway to sample what my poor klr just couldn't provide. a newish m3 provided my quarry and after the chp departed at the off ramp it was on. not a downshift required to pace then put 'em in their place. oh, it's sooo nice to have her back!

any thoughts on the brace provoked fork binding? i had one (also super brace) on my '87 vfr years ago that helped a lot. the one on my klr has provision to allow the tubes to find their place before cinching everything up. i've heard not all forks from a given model reside in the exact same space. a brace clamping things into a space where they don't want to be can casue binding, i've read. is this one of those cases? might i have damaged my forks when i hopped the curb?

while i didn't do the v-block / runout guage on my tubes when things were apart, i was able to freely rotate the tubes in their tripple clamps. the bike tracks straight and there's no pulling while cruising, accelerating or braking. there might be a hint of the bars pointing slightly left while riding in a straight line but, it's hard to tell for sure without an indexing mark.