Fork seals *#!@ grrrrr

Pulled forks from my '93 today to replace a leaking seal. Dangblasted bolt head in the bottom of the fork (that screws into the internal damper hardware) was stripped already. Had to drill it and use an easy-out to remove it. What are the odds....the other one was also putzed up. Took about six hours to do a 2-hour job! :sour:

 

That sucks, I have to do my '02 soon and I am hoping that I'm the first to touch it.

 

Good thing is, the stock bolts are really soft metal. Easy to drill if you have to do it. My fluid had obviously been changed a long time ago. It was really dirty.

 

I had to drill one of mine out yesterday is there any reason why they would have used these soft studs. I was going to just replace with normal Unbrako's

 

That won't help, actually. It is the fact the bolt is threaded into a piece that spin is the problem. Normally stripped out hexes are the result of someone using an impact to assemble them.

Having to drill out the damping rod bolts is somewhat common, and on older bikes more so (naturally). I would guess I have to drill out one for every 20 forks I work on.

 

Thanks Jamie, my only concern was if anybody could see a reason for not using a high tensile Unbrako stud in it, is there any metal reaction I should be concerned about? not that I have a lot of options

 

The only concern would be corrosion - the Unbrako SHCS's are not corrosion resistant. If anything I would use a simple stainless steel SHCS instead.

 

That just blows my motivation to change my seals out. Of course it's also very cold n wet out here.

 

It certainly isn't a nice little 5 min job, I also had a stud through the right handelbar that caused me a lot of grief because it rounded off and I ended up only getting it loose with a hammer and chisel and much relief. Similar situation with one of the studs in through the bottom. I have been doing this sort of work for a lifetime and I have a pretty well set up workshop, but it still had me concerned because if I damaged anything it would be very difficult to get a replacement part

 

Surprised Jamie didn't mention that bottom bolts come sealed with green locktite from factory. Important to use best-quality (not Chinese) 6mm along with impact wrench so it won't spin. :worked_till_5am:

 

I had the allen head stripped oot on my 91, I drilled oot the hex part unitl the surrounding head was gone, then I just used the fork leg as a slide hammer to bust that chit free. At that point, when the stanchion left the fork leg, I just had a stud with threads protruding from the dampening rod, which I could un-due with my bare naked fingers. Happy Ending to a crappy story, fork seals are a breeze, really. Cheers, pictures are greatly appreciated btw.

 

Sorry about the pics, sweating about it was my main concern at the time, and it is all back together now, except for the fairings and that is because I'm thinking about repainting it, need to get decals organized

 

I love happy endings. Cheers