Fork seals

[kiwi cowboy]

hi guys
ive got a 85 fz750 with aleaky fork seal.
can i replace this myself or do you have to pull the fork to pieces and also it has air hose conecting the tops of the two forks.are these easy to remove\reinstal cheers for any help

[bimotabob]

Hi

The questions you ask ring alarm bells big time - don't do it yourself
unsupervised.
Get someone skilled to do it with you or go to a bike shop.
Your life may depend on it.

Regards

[xwhatsit]

If I counted up all the things on my bike that I've done myself, then a good 75% of them would cause a crash if they failed, so I'm happy to take that risk by doing my fork seals.

I have no problem changing the fork oil, etc, but I keep hearing about people taking their bike to the shop to change the fork seals, seems odd. No special tool needed or something? I'm sure it'll tell me in my workshop manual but that's hiding somewhere.

[Squiggles]

could get tricky if theres something unusual like an air hose connecting the two...

usually ya do need a special tool dont ya? quite easy to have the shop do em, can be cheap if you just bring them the forks

[xwhatsit]

could get tricky if theres something unusual like an air hose connecting the two...

usually ya do need a special tool dont ya? quite easy to have the shop do em, can be cheap if you just bring them the forks

No money, and no car to take them to the shop In addition, I'm bike-shop allergic. Apart from Motomail, they have an MV Agusta GP bike

I'll do them myself. One of them is leaking a bit since I took the bike down some stairs -- stupid, I know, but I wasn't aware forks could blow seals if there wasn't any oil in there to begin with

It's a good thing the frame is such a good handler, with FVQ twin shocks and a rather bouncy front end ^_^

[Coldrider]

Insert a feeler guage between the fork & seal, and push it around the perimeter, this will dislodge anything (grit etc) that my be allowing the seal to weep. It MAY save you the time & expense.

[janno]

I've done the fork seals on my bike with my husband's help. I'm not sure about your model, but my Honda NT 650 was straight forward to do.

Best bet in my opinion is to invest in a workshop manual for your bike or find it on the net, so you can swot up and decide if you can do it yourself or get help. I'm sure you could find someone to oversee your attempt if you offered a crate of whatever for a bribe. The job isn't a particularly tricky one to do (unless your forks with the hosey thingies makes it difficult).

[F5 Dave]

These will be simple damper rod forks. What you don't mention is your experience. While I would be tempted to say rush right in if you've done forks before, some I wouldn't trust to remove the front wheel safely.

The pressure can be bleed by pushing the valve, there should only be a few pounds at most (or none would be better). Maybe the best compromise may be to take the forks into a shop. Do you have a manual? Do you have a stand? Yam forks of this age tend to leak often, the chrome seems to get over polished perhaps. Also if they are apart old yams virtually always improve with some stiffer front springs. Std ones are [makes sweeping statement] too soft & sack out. Maybe their factory test rider weighed 45kg & didn't like to use the brakes?

[FROSTY:Me]

The FZ has fairly straight forward forks.The 'air line thingee' is just the air filler for the forks.
They will just slide up the fork as you remove em.
In my experience with them I'd set up your forks without the air then use the 5 odd psi as icing on the cake

[Robert Taylor]

The FZ has fairly straight forward forks.The 'air line thingee' is just the air filler for the forks.
They will just slide up the fork as you remove em.
In my experience with them I'd set up your forks without the air then use the 5 odd psi as icing on the cake

Air assistance is a now discredited way of adding ''spring to the forks'' If you can afford it fit slighty stiffer linear wind springs suitable for your personal stats. Adding air forces the seal lips harder onto the tubes, increasing both stiction and friction. It also shortens seal life dramatically.

[FROSTY:Me]

Yea --wot he said . In other words set the front end up without the air.

[ali]

Was fairly straight forward replacing fork seals on my 1988 fzr1000

Made my own " special yamaha tool " using a screwdriver attached to a spark plug socket ( but then I am a bit of a butcher )

Took me about a hour to do both.

It is a lot easier following a workshop manual, if you don't have one, take the forks out and get them done by a professional, at least this will save you some labour.