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Colapop
18th October 2005, 13:53
My LS650 Savage has leaking fork seals. How hard is it to replace them at home? I have a garage and some tools (though not a mechanics workshop). Anyone have any instructions? I have the manual, is the info in there?
Lack of $$ prevent me from spending too much on this beast. Any advice would great, ta.

sefer
18th October 2005, 14:05
If you can find a workshop manual all the info you need will be contained within :)

Have you checked the manuals link? That'd be the place to start, google it too.

On the whole I don't expect it'd be too hard as long as you have a range of tools to do the job with. My ZXR250 wasn;t that hard, took about 2hrs all told.

Warr
18th October 2005, 14:06
My LS650 Savage has leaking fork seals. How hard is it to replace them at home? I have a garage and some tools (though not a mechanics workshop). Anyone have any instructions? I have the manual, is the info in there?
Lack of $$ prevent me from spending too much on this beast. Any advice would great, ta.
Best way to save $'s is to take the forks out and down to your friendly mechanic. Forks have cunning systems to hold themselves together and require special tools to get them apart. So save youself the grief of trying to do it yourself and take them to a shop.
You will save on the hour or so of time it takes to dismantle the front end.

nudemetalz
18th October 2005, 16:01
Gidday Colapop.

I have a bit of experience with this, having done the NZ's and VTR's recently.
I added a bit of information for Sniper in a recent thread.
Have a read and if I can help any more just say so
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=17400

Cheers

Phenoix
18th October 2005, 16:40
I had a look into doing mine the the ZXR, once cost out new oil and seals and the time and hassle it takes, its usually easier to take the forks out yourself and goto the local bike shop.
Finding the rights tools was annoying.

Colapop
18th October 2005, 17:01
I'm thinking perhaps I'll take the forks off and trundle along to Richard in J'ville. Apparently he's the guy to go to for just about everything - unless anyone's got a better idea. I'd sure like to have a go at it myself tho'

tl_tub
18th October 2005, 17:50
I'm thinking perhaps I'll take the forks off and trundle along to Richard in J'ville. Apparently he's the guy to go to for just about everything - unless anyone's got a better idea. I'd sure like to have a go at it myself tho'

Richard is the man.. I was always taking the kat to him for this or that (well it seemed like it anyway).. Honest guy.. Highly recommended.

sefer
18th October 2005, 19:10
Well I'm the kind of cheap bastard who'd rather do it himself than pay for someone to do it (and who can really complain at $50 for the job vrs $150 by taking the forks in somewhere), but I can see why some would rather take it in somewhere, after all you'd be foolish to think that you aren't likely to strike some issues (at least be prepared for it, cause if you aren't you can bet it'll happen). Still there is something to be said for finding out how the inside works :)

BTW zxr and other inverted fork bikes are slightly harder to do because they are meant to be done with "special" tools, but it's not that hard to find something that does the job.

Phenoix
19th October 2005, 06:16
BTW zxr and other inverted fork bikes are slightly harder to do because they are meant to be done with "special" tools, but it's not that hard to find something that does the job.

HAHA, and thats why I didnt do it, my "special" tool of and hammer and a screw driver probably would have meant more money

sefer
19th October 2005, 14:15
Nah, hammer and screwdrivers are the staple of any good workshop, proven to fix most problems 9 times out of 10 :bash:

Phenoix
19th October 2005, 14:22
Nah, hammer and screwdrivers are the staple of any good workshop, proven to fix most problems 9 times out of 10 :bash:

Yip, its how I adjusted my suspension, but thats has a really large nut.
Wouldnt want to miss on the driver on the folks tho and damage them, or not do it up properly, oil every where. And its a prick to get off complety, unless someone has a good degreeser ?

Colapop
19th October 2005, 14:23
Nah, hammer and screwdrivers are the staple of any good workshop, proven to fix most problems 9 times out of 10 :bash:
They don't use hammers anymore. My old man was a builder and still does the odd job around the place - swore at me when I asked him how come he didn't use a hammer. Nail guns now there's some power...
Sorry not trying to hijack my own thread. Thanks for advice. I'll have a go at them this weekend - getting the forks off that is.

Phenoix
19th October 2005, 18:48
They don't use hammers anymore. My old man was a builder and still does the odd job around the place - swore at me when I asked him how come he didn't use a hammer. Nail guns now there's some power...
Sorry not trying to hijack my own thread. Thanks for advice. I'll have a go at them this weekend - getting the forks off that is.

Hahaha, those guns are fun, shoot the bike to make it work :P

Colapop
20th October 2005, 08:33
Hahaha, those guns are fun, shoot the bike to make it work :P
Nah not at the bike - from the bike. I should attach a couple Mad Max styles.... :Oops: showing my age....

Phenoix
20th October 2005, 13:25
Nah not at the bike - from the bike. I should attach a couple Mad Max styles.... :Oops: showing my age....

Now that would be amusing, good to get some of those annoying cage drivers off the road.
A punture or 2 would work nicely, they probably dont even know how to change a tyre.

Colapop
20th October 2005, 13:32
The ones are the pnuematic ones. They're easy to modify to shoot without the safety... not that I've done that of course that would be illegal. I heard it said that you can have some good factory fights with compressed air staplers... once again only something I've heard.
Back to bikes though. I went to get the seals and found out that the dust covers I thought I had were in fact proper seals. The guys at Wgtn Motorcycles didn't instil a lot of confidence in me when I said I was doing it myself. Also picked up some fork oil that I needed for the job it wasn't a total waste of a trip.

nudemetalz
20th October 2005, 15:14
The job is not that difficult. Really the only hassle you get is with seperating the fork halves. Then care is needed with tapping down the new fork seal into place.

PM me if you want any help. I've done them quite a few times now and know some little tricks.

Cheers