Fork seals

[oldchuffer]

Taken the forks out of my restoration project. The forks look in decent condition but i'd like to replace the seals, can it be done without dismantling the forks? Or would it be easier to dismantle? If so are there any pitfalls to watch out for?

[Nurse Julie]

It can be done without dismantling but to be honest, as you've got the forks out, it's a really good opportunity to drain all the old oil and crud out which settles at the bottom, give the insides a really good clean out and rebuild. There's a post on when I did my 400 ones, I'll try and find it and post the link.
Now attached. You have to read the whole thread as panic stations snuck in at one time, re the orientation of the seals.

http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php/topic,14717.msg120007.html#msg120007

[smoothoperator]

Just come back from the garage having started to try and dismantle the forks and by magic, this post appears. Good old Julie strikes again. My allen bolt is clearly rotating the whole unit it holds in so I stopped. It does say in the manual to leave the top nut tight to give spring pressure but it's hard to imagine this making much difference. I'll try with the impact driver tomorrow if I my allen socket combo fits. Fingers crossed or yet more tools needed. Went to collect some epoxy resin from the RS shop in Corby today as I am having a go at replacing the HT leads.

[Spitfire]

If I remember rightly when that happened with mine I took the top nut off and placed either a socket or a piece of tube in the leg and put the top nut back on, this held it enough to undo the bottom bolt.

Cheers

Dennis

[smoothoperator]

Now that sounds like a top tip.

[AndyD]

I've had a lot of luck using a slightly sharpened broom handle to bang into the fork leg and hold the internals tight enough to undo the allen bolt.
Always amazed it's worked and worst bit is the stinky old oil all over the handle afterwards

Cheers,
Andy

[oldchuffer]

Thanks everyone. Useful link Julie, many thanks.

[Bryanj]

It does make a difference and so does the impact gun, i used a 3/8 drive air gun

[oldchuffer]

Unfortunately i do not have an impact gun. It might have to be the broom handle trick. Wish me luck.

[SumpMagnet]

I still use the broom handle method....which I first saw in the Haynes manual of all places, which advocatyed banging something similar in to jam the damper assembly if the spring didn't hold it.

[oldchuffer]

Update: All completed using the "broom handle" method, it worked a treat. And yes, the old oil did STINK!

[smoothoperator]

Update. Bolts out using my impact driver. Garage now smells like Grimsby docks so I have abandoned it for a while. Sending fork tubes to Philpots to renovate.