Front Fork Seals on '82

[panteradave]

Hi,

I'm in the middle of changing out the fork seals on my recently purchased '82. I'm stumped at the moment as I can't get the slider to separate from the lower housing. I have the lower mounted securely in a vice with the circlip and washer removed. I tapped the slider against the seal using gentle pressure (as the manual says) and the seal refused to budge. I stepped up the intensity of the tapping gradually but still no go. Having not done one of these before, I'm wondering if there is possibly something that I've not done?

The allen bolt in the bottom of the fork (in the axle cradle) is still in place as the head is somewhat damaged and may also have lock-tite on it. I had assumed this allen bolt was just a drain but I guess it's possible that it is screwed into the fork piston (the manual doesn't say one way or the other)?

So finally to the question - does this allen bolt prevent the fork halves from comming apart or should I just get more vigorous whacking the slider against the seal stop?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Dave

[ajs350]

Dave
You will need to remove the socket from the bottom of the fork then the 2 halfs will come apart.
Cease your whacking!
Ross

[zxbob]

Dave

That lower allen bolt "must" be removed to disassemble the forks !

Bob

[panteradave]

Update: I was able to remove the lower allen bolt using a home made 3/8 drive/lever gizmo that attaches to a small air hammer (it lets me turn the bolt with normal breaker bar type pressure while the air hammer keeps the socket engaged in the bolt). Yeah!

But unfortunately the fork halves will still not separate. I may (or may not) have moved the fork seal a miniscule amount, though barely as the keeper groove is almost entirely visible inside the lower tube. I'm nervous that more agressive slide-hammering using the upper tube will mushroom the fork bushing and the halves will never come apart. As a comment, the oil drained from this fork was definitely on the black and grungy looking side - though there was no metal in it. It is possible there might be some corrosion inside the lower tube. The upper tube however is very clean and essentially unmarked by any scratches or scoring, and it slides easily inside the lower.

Any advice at this point? Hammer harder or try some other approach that I'm unaware of?

Thanks,

Dave

[panteradave]

Update #2: Everything is apart now - whew. After so much trouble unsuccessfully dismantling the first fork tube, I switched over the the second. The second separated relatively easily, so then I moved back to the first. On closer inspection, the allen head screw at the base of the fork tube was not completely disengaged from the internal piston, even though the bolt was broken loose and spun easily I could not actually remove it from the fork tube. The piston was apparently spinning round and round inside the tube whenever I turned the allen bolt. By applying outward pressure to the upper fork tube while then loosening the allen bolt provided enough friction for the bolt to turn completly out.

Removing the fork seal was a snap after that. Inspection of both fork tube internals indicates that everything except the seals is in excellent condition, which it should be as this bike has less then 5k original miles on it. There is no internal corrosion, worn bushings, etc. - just the grungy 29 year oil.

After cleaning up the yucky residue, the forks will go back together after lunch with new oil and dust seals. Then I can tackle rebuilding the front brake master, calipers, and pads (all of this began because the right front pads were completely oil soaked from the blown right side fork seal).

Thanks for the quick help responses!

Happy camper Dave.

[daves79x]

It's probably too late, but use 7 or 10 wt oil and fill to 6 inches from the top with springs out and fork collapsed. Much more oil than Honda calls for. That'll give you the best results with the stock forks.

Dave

[panteradave]

I used 10wt fork oil. And I also used the 6" below the top of the tube fluid level (shock collapsed, no spring). Turns out that that is almost exactly 450 cc.

Thanks for all the advice.

Dave