Time for new fork seals..

[myimpala88]

Anyone know where I could find some new oil and dust seals for my forks? All the ones I see on Ebay only go up to '93.

[sweekster]

The YZF 750 with 6 pot calipers had the same forks so you can try looking there. Mine need to be done as well but I'm just going to order them from the dealership since they're cheap. You could aslo try www.cyclepartswarehouse.com. I've used them before. Not bad.

[myimpala88]

Cheap from the dealer?

[sweekster]

They should be about 20 bucks but it'll still depend. I'm doing my seals myself so what will be most costly will be my time.

[myimpala88]

I plan on doing them myself too. I don't want to spend 50 bucks on a part and 300 dollars on labor at the dealer.

[myimpala88]

Woo hoo! Called the dealer today and I can get a four seals and enough oil for both forks for 55 bucks. Now I just have to disassemble the whole front end.

[sweekster]

Told ya..get to it...

[myimpala88]

Now... How do I do it?

[myimpala88]

New seals are in. It was a breeze once we figured it out. The first one took about 3 hours 'cause we didn't have all the right tools and didn't exactly know what we were doing but the second one literally took about 15 minutes.

[sweekster]

Took me 20 minutes to do both of mine total. Glad yours are done now

[Pacman]

How about a write up on how to do them? Is there a way to bypass using the "special" Yamaha spring compressor tool? Do you really have to do a full disassembly to change fluid?

Chris

[sweekster]

How about a write up on how to do them? Is there a way to bypass using the "special" Yamaha spring compressor tool? Do you really have to fully disassemble to change fluid?

Chris

I thought about doing the write up but it went so quick I forgot about my camera. I have a fork spring compressor but I didn't need it. You'll only need that for USD forks that have more than just preload I think. For me it pretty much went like this on my 94 1000:

Make sure your preload is backed out all the way
Unscrew the fork cap and the upper body of the fork can be slid down (don't worry the spring isn't going to fly out)
If you don't have a small siphon or syringe, turn it upside down into a deep pan or bucket and drain the fluid out <- this is all that is needed to be done to change the fluid
Once drained, screw the fork cap back onto the upper fork body and you can impact out the bottom allen head bolt
Once the bottom bolt is out, the lower body of the assembly will slip right out - you can then unscrew the fork cap again and pull out the internals as one unit.
All you have left it the main upper fork body (silver for 91-93 and gold for 94-95 1000s)
You then carefully pry out the dust seal, retaining clip, and then the oil seal

Clean what is needed to be cleaned and reverse the process.
I don't have a fork seal driver but a section 1.75 inch ID PVC tubing did the trick at driving the new seal in place

[Pacman]

Thanks for the info. Do you think an air impact is necessary to break the bottom bolt loose or would just a rachet work?

Chris

[sweekster]

Thanks for the info. Do you think an air impact is necessary to break the bottom bolt loose or would just a rachet work?

Chris

Would not surprise me if the ratchet or even an allen key and pliers do the trick. The torque specs for these things are quite low.

[myimpala88]

Thanks for the info. Do you think an air impact is necessary to break the bottom bolt loose or would just a rachet work?

Chris

Would not surprise me if the ratchet or even an allen key and pliers do the trick. The torque specs for these things are quite low.

The bottom bolt that holds the spring assembly on was pretty tight on my bike. I just took the allen wrench with the loop hole of the proper size wrench and gave it a twist.