Weaping form seals...

[jussi]

Howdy,

Some opinions needed...and maybe help. My 919's form seals are weeping. One is getting somewhat annoying so I figured I need to do something about it.

Do I need special tools to swap the seals? How difficult of a job is it? Never done it...I am sure I can...just not sure if I want to. Should I get all the seals replaced...I mean there is the dust cover, the seal, the ring, a backup seal (I think this is what they called it) at least. Should I order all of them?

2nd...if it is not worth doing by yourself, where would be a good place to have it done in the DFW area? Reasonably priced. Should I by the seals and let them do the work? I can take the forks off the bike easily...so.

Waiting to hear your comments

Jussi

 

[DaveC]

I take a stab at it, I looked up the parts for a 919, 2004 model with the standard forks. I am guessing these are not air assisted! Any way first remove the front wheel, caliper. Slide the dust cover up and then with a set of cirlip pliers remove the circlip. Slip it up the tube. Remove the bolt at the bottom of the forks also the drain plug. Drain the ATF out, may be factory fish oil
BTW you have this up on a stable surface

Now what you do is pop the lower fork section down with vigor, this normally takes several tryies. The two should part ways. The seal and its associated parts are on the upper tube. Now you take the blots loose (not off) and the upper fork peice should slide down. Repeat with other side.
To install the new seal after you clean up the upper tube and use a 1000 grit or better to take out the rock dings sharp edges. you must use the 1000 girt in a motion where you wrap around the tube and twist, DO NOT SAND UP SAND DOWN, This causes the seals to leak out of these scratches. Do this lightly and just enough so you can not catch a nylon or silk or your finger print on the edges.
To install the new seal. assemble the upper and lowers and make sure all the parts that belong in the forks are there. Then you take the magical seal installer and tap the seal down until it is just past the circlip ring groove. This Special" tool can be had for a fee

If you do it this way you do not have to remove the springs or the caps that hold them in place. Now to get the ATF back into them, there are two camps about fork oils, you can use the factory recommended weight which for some reason is never on the shelf or is a strange weight. You can mix two differant weights or you can use ATF. These are the choices. I use ATF and have air assisted forks. 10w fork oil well be just fine in conventialforks. There are several methods to install the fluid, If you have a Myte_Vac you can use it to either draw a vacum through the drain hole and this in turns draws the fluid out of the resorvior bottle into the forks when the vacum is released or you can try forcing it in and releasing the pressure from the forks as it fills, I prefer vacum in this senerio. The third is remove the fork cap and pour the correct amount in. This is the easiest until you try putting the cap back on over the spring, this creates a whole new line of instruction and the invention of words and tools to aid in this venture.
Any questions. My Gold Wing took about 1 1/2 hours and I just piddled around in no big hurry.
Any questions? This time spent well save you $80 to $100. You have already done half the work by taking them off.