Why is it?

When you need to do a pair of jobs, that one is piddlingly easy, and
the other impossible.

GL1500 fork seal.

RHS, 37 minutes, fork back in lower yoke.

LHS 3 hours and counting.

The fork won't pull apart. All the bolts are out, as is the oil, and
the spring.

It's currently in a vice, with a ratchet strap hooked through the
bottom, attached to the garage door mounting. Taut as a guitar string.

A 2lb hammer is being applied gingerly. With a wood block in between.

Everything else on the Wing is okay, afaict. Even the exhausts don't
fart anymore.
--

| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CB1300SA-9/CBX1000Z
_\_____/_| .106850../..08850.../..32457.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 08 Pts:0145 Miles:0406

 

Is this the one where you can pop the seal out by filling it all back up
with water and pushing it together?

 

Sometimes you can blame an engineer. (This comes from someone who
retired from a career in engineering.)
I bought an ST1300 after owning an ST1100. It seems as if Honda put a
team of newbie engineers on the ST13 with no supervision. For any
task, the 13 takes twice as many tools and twice as many fasteners as
the 11. Just pulling the front wheel on the 13 takes: 3 allen
wrenches (5, 6, & 17mm,) and 4 hex wrenches (8, 10, 12, & 22mm.) The
left brake caliper is held with socket head cap screws while the right
uses hex head bolts. Absurd.

 

It's now lying at the back of the garage.

I've cobbled together another fork out of spares.

When that Froggie recovery lad strapped it to the trailer last August,
he managed to force out nearly half the total amount of ATF.

750ml in, ~400ml out.

Anyway, it's now re-forked. Finish bolting the front on tomorrow, then
it's in the hands of the MOT gods once more.

 

One assumes correctly.

 

Oh, and for added "fun", try dropping a Wing off the centre stand, and
then realising that re-attaching the bars *might* have been a good
move.

Glad my mum made me eat my greens.

That said, it's so well balanced, it was ridiculously easy to put back
onto the centrestand in the same configuration.

 

That was going to be my questioon. I spent half an hour pulling forks
apart before Pip reminded me there was a circlip installed as well.
Daft thing was I'd just stripped the other fork with no bother.

 

The "circlip" that Honda use is more of a big wavy bit of bent wire,
and is unmissable when looking at the seal.

 

Same as most others, they pretty much all have that wavy bent wire
thing now

 

Water ? ITYM cheap oil.

It's piss easy popping the seal out by overfilling then jacking up the
fork using a trolley jack. Much easier than farting around stripping
the fork damper tube out.

Paul.

 

What an excellent idea. Never thought of that.

 

Unless a frog sort has blown the seal by strapping the Wing onto a
trailer a little too tightly.

 

"Non, eet eez just ze frost sur ma moustache"

 

Pah. You're preaching to the choir on Honda's complexity for simple
jobs.

Front wheel on a GL1500SE:

1x19mm; 4x12mm; 4x10mm; 6x8mm; 6x6mm hex; 4x5mm hex and 1xscrew.

 

And they have looked upon me with benevolent eyes.

 

+1

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Colin Irvine

+2

 

Thank you all. You can uncross your fingers now.

Just got it home.

By 'eck, those TorqMonsters make it sound more sporty than it is.

A proper six-pot howl at peak torque revs and above.

"Front brake pads not tested" on the yellow slip.

Can't see them without taking off the disc covers, and you're not
allowed to dismantle the bike while testing.

This is its eleventh MOT (fifth from the same place) and the first
time it's been noted.

They *did* test the brakes, though.

 

CBR400 spark plugs. body off, seat off, multiple fasteners to do. Tank off, air-box
off, realise you can't get the plugs out without removing the engine or some shit
pause briefly to turn the air blue, in a tirade of abuse that would make even Nige
blush, at the witless drawing board monkey that came up with such an overly complex
abortion of an excuse for a bike. Then, of course , Haynes manual stylee the
refitting is the reverse of removal.

2 hours for no benefit.

ZXR400 same job. 1 x allen bolt on the seat, 3 on the tank, air-box comes off easy
as pie, pop the leads, out with the plugs, in with the new, pause briefly to smile
at the thoughtfulness of the designers whilst smoking fags (Its only petrol) and
drinking tea. Cable up HT, pop on the air-box and the tank, remembering to hook up
the fuel. screw on the seat. Start up, ride to pub in countryside, phone mate
with CBR400, gloat.

One and a half hours-ish including road test and a pint.

Why do Honda do it? Why? They all seemed to be designed to cause you maximum grief.

 

Looking at the dismantled one, it looks like he slider bushing has
slid over(outside) the damper bushing, and is catching under the lip
below the seal.

I've got my eye on a set on Ebay, which could be a useful safety net
for the future.