Replacing fork seal

Hi,
My '99 ZX-6R has finaly blown a fork seal.
I have the service manual but from my experience with MTB forks there is
always a far simpler way to service them than what the manual says (ie. pull
everything apart).
Just wondering if people had pointers for short cutting the process and if
any special tools were needed?
Cheers,
Duncan.

 

there is always a far simpler way to service them than what the manual says (ie. pull everything apart).

How else do you get the seal onto the fork leg without pulling
everything apart?

 

depends on how hard the seal is

if its not hard from being there for 10 years you can sometimes prise the
seal out
and slide the new one down

 

says (ie. pull everything apart).

For example my Fox MTB fork manual tells you to totaly disassemble the whole
fork including dampers and air spring just to change the oil/seals. In
actual fact you can just undo the lower bolts, slide the lowers off, change
the seals, pump the damper and refill.
Its much easier to write a manual that has almost identical instructions for
every task.

 

~
Motor Torpedo Boats have forks?!!?

 

I had the same "dilemma" with my new '90 TT350. I read an article from
a person that said you could fill them to the top with oil, put them
across your garage door and use a car jack to compress them and force
the seals out! Sounded way to messy and risky to me so I just pulled
them apart and did it the traditional way. It's not too bad once you
get into it - I've not touched a bike for nearly 20 years and I still
only took 2 hours for both! Worst part for me was trying to find an
appropriate piece of PVC pipe to use to ram the new seals in with - I
ended up using the old seals as a buffer between the new seals and a
piece of pipe that was not a very good fit.

Brian.

 

MounTain Bikes have the same forks as '99 ZX-6R's, apparently.

Theo

 

Pipe adaptor fittings work better than bits of pipe, because they're
a bit thicker in the wall and they're definitly cut off square.
You might need to get a machinist to chase it through with a lathe
to get it just right, but it's not exactly difficult work (explain
the lack of need for precision)

-----sharks

 

Good call!
(They probably wouldn't be as waterproof as the boat ones though)

 

You can't see the similarities?

 

It would've been about time, by now. What's that thing up to, about
386,000km?
(long time no hear, btw)

Well, referring to your outline of the abbreviated MTB fork seal
replacement procedure in the other post... for starters, you can't
easily tip a ZX6 upside down.

The slider and stanchion pretty much_have_to be separated to change the
forkseals. If the stanchions and slider have to be separated, the oil
has to be drained first, and if the oil has to be drained, the forklegs
have to come out of the triple clamps... see earlier comment about the
diffculty of tipping a ZX6 upside down.

The hard part is always fitting the new seals, which are easy to damage
(put electrical tape over the end of the fork inner before sliding the
seals on, and don't use anything).

I've only ever had blown fork seals on the YZ, and what I'd do is drain
and separate the affected fork at home, then wander up to my friendly
neighbourhood bikeshop and ask if one of their mechs could, pretty
please, with a cherry on top, spend two minutes fitting my new fork seal
with their profesh fork seal driver; I've never been knocked back,
especially since I usually manage to time it with the purchase of an oil
filter or some such.

(seriously, good to hear from you again, dude)

 

Well, seeing how some of the top-notch MTB's are now coming out with usd
forks, no, you can't; ZX6's of your bike's vintage have rwu's.

 

Well it would've been if I kept riding it like I was. I've taken up
mountain bike racing these days so nearly all my time is on pushbikes. Poor
old Ninja can go for over a week without getting ridden :-( It's only just
made it to 70,000 km.

Fair point, I'm not familiar with the amount of overlap and such on my forks
having not pulled them apart yet.

Thanks IK, I was hoping you'd show up with some good advice.

 

I guess I was being kind of general. Both forks in my case are rwu's, it
seems usds went out of fashion in the MTB world and you don't see too many
of them these days. At a guess the triple clamp usds restrict steering
movement too much.
However, both have stanchions, seals, sliders, shims, oil damping, external
adjusters etc...
My MTB fork is a Fox fork and would share most of it's technology with
motocross forks. In fact early Downhill mountain bikers would use forks
from smallish dirt bikes.

 

Oh, do they? I probably could have said something intelligent
if I'd known that. Oh well, maybe Duncan could mention it next
time.

-----sharks (curmudgeon)

 

Woosh..

 

Are these the new seamless Boxers you are talking about??? Just slip em down
to your ankles and kick off and replace em with fresh ones..... Daily
preferably....