4.03.2011

bouncy bouncy

Still waiting on the carb parts, so instead of wasting days, we set out to change the fork seals. I've done fork work in the past on my CB350 and it literally took all day. I was fighting 33 year old seals with nothing more than basic tools and some PB Blaster. Today, went much better (despite a few set backs).

The first mission was to find 15w fork oil and a bolt with a 24mm head. After several stops and no luck, we went back to the shop and did some more research. Turns out the bolt is going to be damn tough to find but a 5/8" will work. So we picked up some all-thread and 5/8" nuts to make a custom Yamaha tool. While digging around for PB Blaster, we lucked out and found some 15w fork oil that Papa-San had left behind.

Super Special Custom Yamaha Fork Tool




My ceiling lift took some adjustment and we finally got a stable lifting method. The front end disassembly went quickly following the manual. That is, until it went way off the deep end and began to contradict itself. A quick google search turned up this great walkthrough.




Now, with clear instructions, the swap was painless.











The old rotten seals and dust wipers.






4 comments:

NotClauswitz said...

Good forks are a thing of beauty.

red said...

Once we got past the bad directions, man, these forks are cake!

Unknown said...

My favorite tool for seal removal is a blow torch. I used to mess around forever pulling them out, but just a touch of heat does the trick in fine fashion.

Plus, I've heard the magic mixture is 1:1 acetone:ATF for penetrating rust. Never tried it myself, I've had great luck with a can of b'laster, but if you ever get desperate, let me know if it works.

Brady
Behind Bars - Motorcycles and Life
http://www.behindbarsmotorcycle.com/

red said...

Brady-

Had to use the torch method on swing arm bushings for the CB750s. They were made of some weird pot metal. Thankfully my SECA seals came out with little effort.

Thanks for stopping by.