1.7.10

That seals it - I've forked up!

Well, last weekend I changed the fork seals on the bike.

And I got to use a grinder.

Strange mix really. Usually the two things go hand in hand but as always one or two little challenges reared their head.

I did the work at my girlfriends house, which is a large building in Melbourne that's undergoing some renovations. I was lucky, nae, blessed with the use of a good work bench and a vice for the weekend and I shudder to think of going back to work without one.

Due to having to do the whole thing I was a bit under the pump having to get the bike in and out of the place by the end of the day and I'm not happy with the job I've done. So I'll do it again one weekend... oh well.

I put the SR up on the Harley Cruiser stand that I'd bought from Anderson, choked it up with some bricks as the weight was biased forward a bit and went about undoing the pinchbolts that held everything together at the front. All 8,000,000 of them.

Forks came off beautifully, I drained the oil into a bucket and a bit on the the floor and put everything in the vice. I'd been to alltools where I had multiple orgasms looking at the shiny tools there and picked up a 50cm extension of my ratchet and a 17mm hex head.



Everything was in the vice but...

... The socket wouldn't fit inside the inner tube.

So it was upstairs to play with a grinder to take a bit off the outside.


Lovely stuff.


The whole setup basically looked like this:





Everything turned easily and with a few swift pulls the whole thing came apart neatly.



And here's a similar pic, showing the order in which it sits when mounted.



So from top to bottom is the fork seal, the spacer, the bushing and at the bottom sits another bushing which I didn't remove.

Anyway, here's the parts all laid out. Not in the correct order, of course. I managed to stuff up what could have actually been a helpful picture.



So here's where things get interesting. The All-Balls fork seals that Deus sent didn't seem to be the same as the OEM ones that were fitted.



So, long story short... with the spacer the new seals would sit above the recess for the retaining bolt.

To give you an idea, this is how it all fitted together when I started:



Get my drift? So, it's one of two things. It's supposed to fit without the spacer. Or it's the wrong seal.

Running short of time I went the first option. I haven't had the chance to test it yet, but on Saturday I'll be motorbiking around and should know if it's worked, but in the hackjob I did forcing them in I'd be surprised. A fork seal driver is next on the list.

So, class, what did I learn this week?

A vice and a good bench makes all the difference.
As does the right tool.
A fork seal driver would be a good investment.
A need a bloody garage.

I'll pick up some OEM fork seals shortly. I know it should be okay mounted how it is at the moment, but I don't like changing things from standard.

Yeah, shutup. You know what I mean.

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