How do you know when the fork seals are bad or going bad , when they go bad can you do any kind of up grade to get better handling or just replace the seals. is it difficult to change the seals???

 

You know when you have blown fork seals, as it allows the fork oil to escape, & run down the fork leg, often just a dribble at 1st. But sometimes a gush, the handling goes off due to it.
There are quite a few mods you can do to the forks, different springs (after market), oil viscosity, you can even get the damper rod tricked up (93 models on).
Doing the fork seals is not complicated, but it requires a bit of work, disassembling the components to get to the fork seal. And it can be a bugger compressing the spring to insert & tighten the top nut. I also recommend doing both forks & the bushes as well, but that's me, some people would not worry about it. You should get hold of a workshop manual as well.

 

I agree.Another nice mod would be the RaceTech Gold Valves. Saw some on eBay for a pretty good price... just don't have any $. I know theyare availablefor the F3 and up, notsure about anythingolder. Replacing the seals is a sinch, just make sure that you clean them up really good. I tear mine down and clean them with solevent to get all the old fork fluid off and out of the damper rod.

 

I think you are going to need to buy or make a special tool to drive the fork seals in. I made one by following this how to and it worked like a charm

https://cbrforum.com/m_319192/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

 

i always like to upgrade when fixing **** , so the RaceTech Gold Valves is all i would need to replace the front end, is there a noticable difference after this upgrade.

 

Notta bad idea... since you're there, you might as well. I haven't heard if the gold valves are worth it or not. Like I was saying... would try'em out if I had the $.

 

just talked to one of old guys at work, who builds his own bikes supposedly he said doing the forks are a bitch , he said rather change a motor then have to do fork seals lol ??? is it that hard to do cause ive pretyy much done it all on my F3 except carb build i cant see fork seals being that hard is it worth the effort or just take to shop????/ i really appreciate the help peace

 

Its just labour intensive really. The only probs I've had is getting the cap back on with the bloody springs. getting the seals themselves ain't that hard (I use a wrench socket to tap it into place & I mean tap) You also have to make sure the the springs go in the correct way (tapered end of coil is the bottom). I have a friend that helps me with getting the fork cap on, although usually he just there to drink me beer & hand me the wrong tool. You have to be really accurate with the amount of fork oil & if your only doing the one make sure its the same weight (viscosity) as the other.
Your going to loose some bark off your fingers & knuckles, your back, arms and legs will ache like buggery & its going to take a lot longer than you planned it would. But its a do able, get a quote from the shop to see how much it will cost you, & if you can afford it, do it.
However I find this sort of work very satisfying (for some reason), now where did I leave my ******** clamps?

 

Hey guys, I'm trying to rebuild my f2 fork and I don't know where I went wrong. What I did was as this:

1st - Removed the 24mm bolt to drain tubes
2nd - Unbolted dampening screw at the bottom
3rd - removed clip
4th - Tried pulling the fork tube apart from the fork slider

Now here's where I'm stuck... I can't seem to get the fork tube apart from the fork slider... Why is that when I unbolted and removed everything inside the tubes itself... there's nothing in the tubes except ... nothing. I can't get access to the oil seals very easily so that's why I wanna pull apart the fork tube and slider but what the **** am I doing wrong...

-Jasper

 

Jasper,

If you have removedall the internal components, you're almost there. To seperate the forkslider from the fork tube, you need to use some force. Secure the fork slider in some thing like a vise and thenpush the tube all the way down. With force, pull the tube out. You'll hear it some thing which is the fork seal. Essentially you are ramming out the seal.
I have had seals corrode in place and wasn't able to ram them out. Ihad to use a torchand apply heat to break the seal loose. But for the most part, with a few good hits, the seals should come right on out.