Who's had luck disassembling forks, and how?

When I installed the progressive fork springs last year I had one of my oil seals leaking, and I had planned to replace the seal while the forks were removed from the bike.

I followed the instructions in the service manual to remove the shiny upper fork tube from the lower body tube by using the upper tube as it's own "slide hammer" and quickly jerking the tube upwards numerous times, but after several hours and a lot of pain I gave up.

I really didn't want to clamp the upper tube with a vice grip and cause any damage, so I just reassembled everything. It's been a year and that fork tube is still leaking (of course).

Just wondering if anybody has had any success with this procedure. I was thinking I might locate a used steering head (triple tree) on ebay and use that as a clamp, but so far I haven't found any cheap ones (even a bent one would work). The idea is to bolt the fork lower to my work bench, clamp the fork upper into the steering head, and tap that outwards with a hammer.

What have you used?

Jesse in Atlanta

Isn't there a bolt at the very bottom of the outer fork tube that needs to be removed 1st?

Why can't you make some sort of a split wooden holder for the fork tube? Say out of a 2X6, with an exact size hole for the upper tube and then a wide saw cut down one side to the hole. You could then use a long bolt or all-thread as a pinch bolt to hold it together, and then mount the whole works in a bench vise. HTH

Tim

IIRC I once removed fork seals on a friends SW (after first removing the dust seals) by using a long thin sheet metal type screw to screw into the old seal body and then pull it up using channel locks or vise grips. Maybe I used two of those screws in each seal. Anyway, it wasn't all that difficult, and the fork tube wasn't damaged in the process.

Of course I used the split PVC tubing trick to reinstall the new seals.

Some nice tricks there Tim, I must file them away for that rainy day. Thanks

Slacken the fork cap nut,remove fork from yokes,remove cap nut,spacer,spring seating washer & spring,then drain oil from fork by tipping up & pumping approx 10 times.
Hold lower fork in "soft jaws" (wood,lead,alloy,etc) by clamping in the mudguard/brake caliper lug,loosen & remove socket bolt & sealing washer from lower fork,remove fork piston & rebound spring.

If the slider spins when undoing the bolt temporarily refit the spring,seating washer & cap nut.


Edit : You will need a new seal & a spot of threadlock on the bolt when re-assembling

Seal needed is item 20 in this diagram ...... http://www.ronayers.com/FRONT-FORK-C197992.aspx

Thanks all! I'll check it out over the holiday weekend.

Keep the shiny side up!
Jesse in Atlanta

Are people adjusting their headlight aim afterwards? I would think this would cause the front end to sit a bit higher at rest, not just firm up the suspension.