Now with the upper fork tube in the vise place the lower fork tube in position. Slide the dust seal, snap ring and oil seal up the tube a little until we set the outer bushing. Use the fork seal driver against the back-up ring then the outer bushing. A few good hits and the outer bushing will be set.

Slide the fork oil seal down to where it starts to seat in the upper fork tube. Using the fork seal driver tap it lightly at first to get it started. Once you know its started it should only take a few good hits with the driver to seat the fork oil seal. You will hear a difference in the sound the driver makes when it hits the seal when its set. Now with your fingers start the snap ring. Once its started all the way around the fork use the fork seal driver again and with light pressure you will hear the snap ring set into place. Lastly using your hands press the dust seal into the upper fork tube.

Now the fork tubes are back together and we are ready to reinstall the internals.

 

Now you are ready to reinstall the damper unit. Make sure you have cleaned it the best you can. You will need the centering plate that goes on the end of the damper. You also need a new cooper crush washer and some loctite for the bottom damper bolt.

Place the lower fork tube in your vise. Install new washer on bolt and apply a small amount of loctite to the threads. Now place the centering plate on the end of the damper. I had my fork tilted down in the vise so when installing the damper it went up to keep the centering plate from falling off. You can look through the bottom of the fork to make sure you are lined up with the damper. Using your long 8mm start the bolt into the damper. It should be easy to thread the bolt into the damper. Now you need to torque the bolt to 25ftlbs. I held the opposite end of the damper with a 15mm wrench to keep it from rotating while I torqued the bolt.

 

Now its time to add fluid. With fork still in the vise pour one bottle or about 16ozs of fork fluid in the fork. I used Pro Honda SS-8 10w oil. One bottle is plenty per fork when you upgrade to heavier springs.

Now slowly pump the damper rod up and down to remove air trapped in the damper. The movement should get smoother the more you pump the damper. (If its hard to pump make sure the adjuster at the top is turned fully counterclockwise) Once you can't feel any difference by pumping the damper place the palm of your hand over the end of the fork tube. Now slowly raise and lower the fork tube with your other hand. You should feel suction and pressure on you hand while doing this part. Do this 8-10 times then leave the fork upright for at least 5 minutes before checking the oil level.

Homemade Fork Oil Tool for around $7. Buy a meat injector at your local grocery store. Get some 1/8in clear plastic fuel line or similar tubing. The injector I found had a nice point that I could sit on the fork lip so I cut the tubing to exactly 110mm since it would fit on the injector right up to my reference point. I cut a piece from a wire coat hanger and taped to the tubing to keep it rigid and pointing straight down. this setup worked great for me. I withdrew fluid until it started to suck air so that I know my fluid levels are set the same in each fork.

 

We are now ready to install the springs, fork cap, lock nut and finish up the rebuild.

Remember in the earlier post that the Racetech springs were a little shorter than the stock springs. I called Racetech to make sure I was doing to right thing in regards to installing the springs to get the preload within range. Louie with Racetech said with the preload adjustability in the 954 fork cap all I needed to do was get their spring as close to the same length as the stock spring by using the washers provided. I found that adding 2 washers under their spring got me very close. The washers sit under the spring on the top lip of the damper. Do not put them between the spring and spring collar or above the spring collar between the collar and the fork cap.

Its time to install the springs but first we need to add the 2 required washers. Place them over the damper and drop them into the fluid. They will settle down to the top of the damper. Remember the springs have an up and down side. Make sure you install them with the larger part down where it will rest on the washers and the smaller part up. Slide the spring over the damper. Pull the damper rod up then slide the plastic spring collar down over the damper. While holding up the damper place the fork cap over the end of the damper. Start the lock nut on the damper to keep the damper from falling back through the fork cap. Make sure you have the fork cap fitted correctly on the damper otherwise the preload adjuster inside the fork cap will not work correctly. Tighten the lock nut on the damper. If you remember when you took them apart the nut stops just below the flat sides on the top of the damper. I tightened it as much as possible before the damper started to turn with it. I then placed a 1/2in wrench on the flat sides of the damper and tightened the lock nut a little more.

Now you can raise the upper fork tube and install the fork cap into the fork tube. Now place your preload cap back on top of the damper and install the lock ring.

You are done rebuilding your forks.

 

GREAT write-up BackDoc! Printed and stored.

 

Yeah this was rather timely for me too. Thanks. Except I think I screwed it up. I was following the service manual (found your write-up midway through), which said nothing about a bullet (or saran wrap), or about driving in the outer bushing.
Without a bullet the new seal still slid on pretty easily, so hopefully I did not damage it.
For the outer bushing I just slid it in, then drove in the oil seal. Will that set the outer bushing properly? I think I got the oil seal in far enough. It did not seem to want to go any farther and the whole snap ring groove is uncovered.
I got to the air bleeding step however and I've got some new red fork oil seeping through the bottom. No signs of scoring on the fork tube. And I'm feeling so much suction and pressure that I really can't move the fork without cracking a gap to let a little air out.
I also am not 100% sure I positioned the oil seal the right direction. I put the side that has the inner ring notched into it down facing the dust seal. Sound right?

 

The outer bushing can be set when you drive in the oil seal. I just find it easier to set it first then the back-up ring sits on a groove above the outer bushing. Now when you drive in the oil seal it can only be driven until it sits directly on top of the back-up ring. You should be able to tell by the change it sound when the oil seal is set properly. If you see the groove for the snap ring then the oil seal is set correctly.

Is your leak around the bolt in the bottom? Did you buy new copper washers for the bolt in the bottom of the fork and torque it correctly before adding fluid? If not this could cause a leak.

Did you remove all rebound by turning the small adjuster at the top of fork counterclockwise? If you didnt this will cause the damper to be stiff when trying to bleed it.

As for the direction of the oil seal. The new seals I purchased had 2 grooves facing the oil and only 1 ring that faced the dust seal. I will look at my old seals tonight when I get home to see how to tell the difference on them. You may get a leak if the oil seals were put in wrong.

 

Here is a picture of the top and bottom of a fork seal. The left seal shows the top or the side that should be facing the dust seal. The right seal shows the bottom or the side that should face the back-up ring and fork oil.

 

Thanks for the tips!

Sounds like I probably seated the parts right, but the oil seal might be backwards. It's a little hard to tell in your picture.

Edit: I just took apart my other one and the oil seal is the opposite way. The deeper groove goes up towards the bushing and the shallow groove side faces the dust seal. Would it kill the manufacturers to carve an "A" or something into one side of this thing?

I did not back out the damping on the fork. However, I can move the damper, it is the tube itself that is so hard to move, unless I let a little air leak out by my hand.

I did not torque down the bolt, but wrenched it to about what I felt was 25 lb ft with a crescent wrench gripping my allen wrench. I guess I would get a torque wrench on there if I used a hack saw to cut off the right angle on my allen wrench. But I did use a washer, and lock tite, and the leak is definitely coming through the oil seal anyways.

Edit2: Took the first one apart again and put oil seal in right direction. Reassembled. Did this back in Jan but did not update post. Seems to have worked. Cautiously optimistic.

 

nice writeup