Another Run at Fork Seals

[Twobrothersbusa]

Don't be scared off by Fork Seals...this is on my GSXR, but the Busa is the same.

For each fork you'll need a
Dust Seal
Oil Seal
Upper O-Ring
Bottom Bolt Crush Gasket

For tools you'll need a torque wrench and a long 8mm allen wrench. As you can see in the first pic I cut off a standard Allen Wrench to make something that would work. Also a measured syringe for measuring oil and a impact wrench is useful as well.

Leaky Seal

Get the brakes out of the way

Remove the front tire

Loosen the clip on bolt as well as the upper triple tree clamp bolt. Loosen the upper cap with the fork still tight in the lower clamp. I used a surgical glove between the socket and cap to help prevent nicks.

Loosen the bottom two allen screws on the fork clamp

Slide the tube down

Once you get the tube out, you'll need to remove the 8mm drain plug. Keep the upper cap on at this point as you'll need to compress the fork to keep the inner assy from spinning. (This is where and impact wrench works great. Just compress the fork by pushing down then a quick hit of the impact wrench spins the bolt right out.)

Once you get the tube drained unscrew the upper cap and lift out the spring assy

 

[Twobrothersbusa]

More to follow

The three pieces that make up each tube

Be careful here and pry out the dust seal

Next is the oil seal, but you'll need to remove the snap ring retainer. (Note the writing on the seal faces out.)

There is a metal washer under the oil seal

Wipe down well and reassemble in reverse order. Washer, Oil Seal (press in the new one with one the old seal), snap ring, dust seal. Slide
the tubes back together and drop in the spring assy. Torque the bottom allen bolt to 23 Nm. Fill the fork with the appropriate amount of oil.
For the GSXR is 512 ml. Which is 1 bottle of oil plus 39 ml.

New o-ring on the cap and snug it back down

Torque the cap to 23 Nm when you get it back into the bike. And you are half way done. Rinse Repeat.

 

[highestgrade]

Sticky

 

[Fastfrog007]

Excellent write up Charlie. Im sure it'll come in handy for some folks

 

[macon454]

 

[teddypenn]

nice write up. i'll definatly reference this post when i get set to change mine

 

[Tufbusa]

You left out one important step Charlie. Pumping the oil out of the cartridge. The piston inside the cartridge is filled with oil. You should place the cartridge on a folded towel and pump that puppy until all the oil is removed. If you miss this step, the fork will be overfilled with the addition of 512 ml of oil.

By increasing the oil level in the fork it leaves less air space. This air space is compressed as the fork travels through its stroke. As the air pressure is increased this acts like an overload spring and gives the spring more resistance as it nears the bottom of the stroke. Makes the fork act like it has a progressive spring. If this air pressure is to great it will blow the seal out prematurely.

So if you are going to use this method to replace the seal it's very important to remove ALL the oil from the cartridge!

 

[skydivr]

Recommend for sticky (corrected to drain all oil)....

 

[EarlyBird]

 

[georgiabusa_05]

Good deal Charlie.

 

[x-d-x]

Amazing write up. This is definately going to come in handy.

 

[hayabillybusa]

Thanks Charlie,
I just washed my bike a couple of nights ago and found my right fork leaking, and I am on my way to a trip to the states on June 3rd, and I was just checking into getting it done or doing it myself and you have just heped me out. Factory seals and stuff or is there a superior brand out there that works better? I don't have a great deal of time to get this and up here in Canada the dealers don't usually stock alot of the things that I usually go in for.

 

[Twobrothersbusa]

From what I understand, use only factory fork seals. Good luck.

 

[hayabillybusa]

Thanks Carlie,
Everything here is closed tomorrow due to the Victoria day long weekend so will have to wait till Tuesday

 

[karnage]

so my question is how to take that whole cartridge out??Is the 8mm bolt down below hold it to the lower tubes as well as drain the fork??If so I will do this myself then.

 

[JRoberts1983]

Yes, the bottom bolt holds the cartridge in the fork. Soon as you get that out and unscrew the top, the whole cartridge will pull out.@ be absolutely sure to pump the cartridge itself to remove the oil or you'll be doin it over.

 

[Tufbusa]

I'll add a little update here.

Don't depend on the amount of oil stamped on the plastic bottle to be accurate. I just replaced the seals in my gixxer yesterday and found the bottle actually contained over an ounce more fluid than the numbers on the bottle indicated.

Use an accurate measuring cup to measure the amount of oil going into the fork!

 

[Devientartist]

This a great write up! I am going to take a crack at it myself in the next few weeks. I have one question and is fairly simple but I honestly don't know. What kind of stand or support can I use to hold the front end on the bike up while I remove the forks?

 

[Josh]

Thanks for this write-up. Just did mine today, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be

 

[karnage]

It was pretty easy wasnt it.Hardest part for me was opening the lower clamp enough to get the tube to slide out.The rest was simple.My forks feel so much better now.