Fork Seals - What brand to use?

[Anonymous]

Lost a fork seal yesterday on my '80 850L. Truth is, it warned me for a month with a little oozing and black residue on the fork before it let go. Now I've got an oily rotor and brake pads to boot. I've never worked on the forks (other than check/adjust pressure) but thanks to the many posts here I'm ready to dive in.

Question 1: What brand fork seals to buy? Does it make a difference?
OEM $22 a pair
Bikemaster $11 a pair
Others???

Question 2: Are there any other seals, O-rings, bushing, etc. I should replace while I've got it apart? (bike has 13K miles) Just as normal or preventative maintenance?

[gspaul]

OEM are a better quality in this case, for 13k miles thats all you would need in this case.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Even if they were $22 each I would only use OEM

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the input - I ordered the OEM seals. Found them at Pro Source Motorsports for $9.43 each. While looking I found at least three other brands of seals - somebody must be buying them...

[XS500RUS]

Just wanted to say I was on the verge of starting a new thread to ask about "bikemaster" brand fork seals vs OEM, then I did a quick search and found this thread. Needless to say I'm convinced to buy OEM (I also have a local dealer that I like to support).

[kparkfan]

check out z1 enterprises . com

[spyug]

Just did mine today on my Kat project. I'll give you some guidance since its fresh in my mind:

Do a search and read up on the procedures. Pay particular attention to the post by Steve who gives a lot of really good and useful information. There is a good tutorial also on Cliff's site so have a look there.

Before you pull the forks from the trees loosen off the cap bolts.

Pull the forks and with a cloth over the caps loosen them right off. Remember the spring is providing pressure so be waiting for it. Its not frightfully strong but it can fire the cap across the room if not held down.
Steve advises you to mark the point where the cap comes out of the fork so you can put it back in when finished without fear of cross threading. Be careful with the threads as they are fine and easily buggered.

Remove the spacer and the spring, clean and set aside.

Invert the fork over a pail and pour out the nasty old oil.

Pour in a cup full of paint thinner, mineral spirits, kerosene or cleaning fluid of choice. Screw the caps back on and loosely tighten down. Pump the forks and shake them about. Drain.

Now to get the inner leg out, you need to remove the bolt at the bottom of the leg. Its "glued" in so you will need to fab up the special damper holding tool and you'll need the appropriate allen key or better allen headed socket and torque wrench. The best tool for it is an allen socket on either a pneumatic or electrical "rattle"gun. I have a compressor and air wrench.

The special tool is detailed in Steve's post and the easiest way to fab it is using about 30" or so of 1/2" threaded rod with 2 nuts locked at the one end. The nuts are 3/4 across which is almost 19mm the size of the depression in the damper head.

With my tool, I welded a handle at the other end to form a "T". I insert the tool, invert the fork and tool and stand on the tool handle while attacking the lock bolt. Careful taking out the bolt as there is a crush washer that comes with it. When you take out the tool the damper and a couple of washers andan aluminum connector will come too. Don't lose them.

Clean the insides of both tubes with a bottle brush or towels wrapped around a dowel, stick or wire.

Now to get out the old seal first remove the spring clip retainer. The easiest way I found is to cut them out with a dremel tool fitted with a cut off wheel. Cut in as far as you can without damaging the fork wall in two places. Pop in a thin bladded screw driver by one of the cut, twist and pop.....out she comes

Replacement is as they say, reverse of the foregoing. Put a touch of oil around the rim of the new seal and push it in. You can use an appropriately sized piece of tube or socket to seat it. Add a touch of Locktite to the locking bolt. Check your manual or Cliff's write up for the right amount of oil. Button it up and reinstall the forks.

Its not hard other than getting the darn lock bolt out. I really do recommend a power tool as they are in tight.

Looking forward to hearing how it works out for you.

Good luck,
Spyug

[gearhead13]

I bought some fork seals branded "K&S" . I hope they are good seals, I got them off ebay.