It's Time To Drain

I've never actually taken a fork apart on my own, and it's been a long time since I "helped" Steve at GTPE to change the oil and seals on a pair of my upside down forks. So yeah, this job has quite a different flavour to it. I've read the Haynes manual and watched this youtube video by a chap called Matt Tries To Do Things a few times and figured I could have a crack at that.

One big difference I found compared to the video was the dust seal took a good five minutes using a knife, flat blade screwdriver and significant amounts of cursing to remove. There was so much corrosion around the top of the fork tube it had really gripped the seal to the point where I had to cut much of it away. Once the dust seal was out, the video and the manual both claim that pulling the stanchion from the tube will remove the oil seal and bushings. My stanchion and both bushings came out leaving the oil seal behind however. That took a blade, several flat bladed screwdrivers and a lot of walloping with a hammer to crush the seal so it could be pried out.

Eventually out it came, although I marked the washer that separates the upper bushing from the oil seal and thankfully nothing else. It had some light surface corrosion however so it's been given a rub with some very fine wet & dry, and the Dremel used to get the two screwdriver related marks out. I could buy a new one but it's £5 for a washer and LDU bike so... The fork top however needed quite a lot of attention with a blade and the wet & dry to get it passably smooth. 20 years of salt and road grim will do that I guess, look at the rest of the bike! I wish I'd taken a photo of it just as I'd finally managed to get both seals out...

Anyway, it's time to drain

 

And then get busy with the brake cleaner and rags. Once that's done we're left with a fair few bits that I'm hoping I can replace in the right order shortly. The good news is that the chrome on the stanchion is in good condition around the area that the seals slide over. Above it around the area of the clamps, not so much but that's somewhat irrelevant right now. The fork oil that's drained out is looking somewhat secondhand. Doesn't stink as much as I expected though, and there's more of it left than I thought considering how much has been deposited on my garage floor.

With regards to reassembly, it's only fourteen or so bits, plus the seals so you'd hope I should be able to do it right... I will admit that the oil seal is causing me a wee bit of concern. It's not immediately obvious which way round it goes, both sides look similar and both have writing on, but they are different and I'm pretty certain it does matter quite a lot which way round it goes. Might swing past Cornwall Kawasaki on the way home tomorrow and ask for more advice, guess it's 50/50 but let's get it right first time eh?

The fork leg is looking pretty ropey though, quite a bit of the paint is flaking off and just looking generally grotty. Since it's apart I might as well do something about it. After a bit of attention with the flapper wheel it looks like this. Not perfect but all the loose paint has been asked to leave via the gift shop*.

Half an hour of making off the important bits then it's off to the professional spray booth** 

I'll be riding this bike over 1000 miles in 24 hours on the 21st of June baring spectacularly firey breakdowns. I'm doing this for Cancer Research and have a CR Fundraising page here if you feel like sponsoring me. Thank you!

* dust pan and brush

** Lidl pillar drill cardboard box, plus a can of random (very good) German primer and Halfords gloss black. Doesn't help the primer is also black, could do with some grey stuff. Top Tip: keep paint in the airing cupboard before using makes the coverage much better.