Four candles

Oh alright, four xeals.

Having noticed that one of mine has gone a bit damp on the dust cover
(I've read the manual so I know this is a cover and not the actual seal)
I'm going to have to get the seals replaced.

I suspect the cause may have been the omigod moment yesterday when I
rode over a bit of wood that jumped off the back of a lorry going the
other way. Anyway

is replacing the seals on a GSX750F as easy as the HBOL suggests:

Bike on stand
Remove front wheel
Pick bike up
Wheel back in
Jack under exhaust
Wheel out again
Drop forks out
Swear a bit
Forks back in
Slacken top nut
Forks back out
Remove top nut
Bang tubes out, pulling seal with it
Gently coax new seal in
Reverse the rest of it
Fill with fork oil

or not?

Several generic web articles suggest it is this simple, but I expect
somebody on here will know for sure.

Ta

 

MikeH says...

It's pretty much like that, only you'll neeed to undo the bolt that
holds the damper rod in place, and that one goes in from the bottom of
the forks. That's the fucker that will either come out easily, or will
spin round like a bastard requiring use of Mr Suzuki's special tool to
hold the damper rod still. Try undoing it while the forks are intact and
spring pressure is acting on the damper rod seat. Clamp the fork in a
vice by the caliper mounts and have a go. If it gets a little easy to
turn, get someone strong to push the stanchion into the slider and exert
more pressure on it. You'll find air tools are extremely handy for this
job.

I did the seals on my CBR600 yesterday, they were a pice of piss - but
then again, I've done hundreds over the years so they would be.

 

Someone up there ^^^^^^^ implied that often fork seals can be removed by
using a self-tapper screwed into the seal to yank it out. I don't think
that would have been possible on the last set that I did, but might be
worth a try. I've done that on camshaft and crank seals etc. in the past.

OTOH, you may well want to dismantle them to get all of the gunge out
that seems to accumulate in the bottom of the legs.

 

That can work. It's best to get the leg around the seal nice and hot,
too: that makes removal and replacement much easier.

There's a brutal tool that stabs the seal and then levers it out, but
you need to be really careful with it as it's very easy to nadger the
surface the seal sits in. The traditional way is best, and Lozzo's on
the money here. Actually, to stop the damper rod spinning, a broom
handle jammed down the fork leg often works.

 

I used to use a suitably-sharpened piece of wood, but then I discovered
that using an allen bit on the end of a number of extension bars (or
similar) worked much better.

 

TOG@Toil says...

Try doing that with cartridge fork innards. No can do.

 

If you hadn't snipped I could have just printed out one posting.

Thanks all for the advice.

Wait for a dealer post saying "A bloke just came in with a broom handle
jammed down one fork leg and some self-tappers and allen bits trapped in
the bottom of the other. Asked if it was covered by the warranty as he
thought it was like that when he bought it."

 

Lozzo wrote:

I haven't been outside to look, but is the damper rod something I could
loosen with somebody sat on the bike pushing the forks down before I
start dismantling?

 

You can't undo the damper rod without removing the front spindle, so
probably not.

 

Aha.

Luckily I cunningly covered myself against looking stupid by saying "I
haven't been outside to look".

This is known as the "I'm not stupid, I'm lazy" defence.

 

If you were /slightly/ less lazy, you could work out whether the forks
off a 1992 GSX600F would fit your bike, and I'd sell you a very nice
pair at a very reasonable price, thus avoiding having to undo the damper
rod nut at all!

This is known as the "any opportunity for a sale" riposte.

 

<shakes piggy bank>

<picks up buttons>

 

Okay, so not *that* reasonable.

 

Ah. No, I suppose it wouldn't work.

 

I still possess a length of (I think) 10mm threaded rod with two
appropriately-sized nuts secured on each end. However that was
appropriate for a GSX550ES; I have no idea if it would fit anything
modern.

 

God, I'd forgotten your old GSX. Wasn't that the one whose swinging arm
pivot was actually broken in half???

 

I tend to find this makes for rather a stiff ride.

 

Yeah, thanks, I'd managed to forget that too - it was only held in
place by the plastic caps of the pivot tunnel. I had no idea just how
much was wrong with that bike until I test rode the Bandit 600 I then
bought. Some bikes are learning experiences; that one was a PhD in
"what not to buy". I learned a lot from that bike. As my first
post-DAS bike, I claim it as a rite of passage, of sorts...

 

Brilliant. I can send all these bloody pills back.

 

Sell them via the internet. Lots of people do.

Oddly, I was hearing the other day that spam actually works - you'd be
surprised (I was) to find that a significant percentage of
VigraGiantWilly spam results in orders - something like 7%, which is
astounding in direct mail terms.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"A scone and tea at half past three
Makes the day a little brighter
Keep your cakes and fancy tarts
And stick them up your shiter."