'97 Fork Seal Replacement Problems

[timpilot]

I watched Sean's video of his daughter disassembling forks for seal replacement.

I attempted to disassemble my ‘97 forks but ran into issues. I was using a brand-new impact gun and brand-new impact 10-mm hex bit. One lower bolt head stripped out. The other one is spinning, with some difficulty to turn it.


I'm thinking about carefully drilling the heads off of the bolts.

Need some help here.

 

[dannymax]

You can make a damper rod holding tool out of a long piece of all-thread and a couple nuts tightened together....can't remember the size nuts tho but someone may chime in with it. Otherwise it's a trial & error thing.

That should hold the one that's spinning....for the other one maybe you can hammer the next size larger SAE allen wrench in the spun out socket then use the holder tool?

Place your damper rod holder tool tightly in a vice, seat the fork on then push on the bottom bolt with your impact gun....this holds it all together and give the gun quick burps on the trigger.

Good luck, they can be a snake to deal with! :bang head:

 

[eggohead]

I did it that way they showed in video. Only issue is I also learned that the allen key you want to use is not one with a swivel head. Make sure it's flat. I mine felt like it was stripping the bolt head until I used a regular flat end. I also used a hammer to tap it into bolt. I did 2 sets of vmax forks this summer. Hope you can get it out.

 

[Fire-medic]

Give it to the machine shop and pay the price, or look for a decent set of used forks on here.

 

[timpilot]

Thanks for the suggestions. Ordered new bolts and copper gaskets today ($27.88 -local dealer came within $0.84 of Cycle Parts Warehouse price so, l kept my business local.). Planning to take the forks to the dealer tomorrow to see if they can just break the bolts loose.

I'm an old time aircraft mechanic and have drilled out hundreds of bolts that other mechanics had given up on. As a last resort I'll drill the heads off of the bolts.

 

[Fire-medic]

Geez, giving mechanics advice to an A & P guy is like telling an Army Ranger how to shoot! Pardon me.

 

[dannymax]

Geez, giving mechanics advice to an A & P guy is like telling an Army Ranger how to shoot! Pardon me.

:rofl_200::rofl_200::rofl_200:

 

[Hellboy]

I couldn't get one of mine to break loose with my cheap little impact driver or my neighbors really good one. I tried for a couple of hours, luckily it never stripped the head of the bolt. What I did find that finally worked was to do it in reverse, sort of. I made a damper rod holding tool as described by Dannymax, 22mm I think. Then instead of using it to hold it from turning, I put the allen key in a vise , and then used the holding rod as a kind of wrench to undo it from the damper side of things instead of trying to turn the bolt. It worked almost immediately, no impact driver or anything. I think the bolt gets almost seized to the copper washer and just won't spin but the dampening rod will spin easily, took a minute or two. Good luck.

Matt

Matt

 

[timpilot]

Geez, giving mechanics advice to an A & P guy is like telling an Army Ranger how to shoot! Pardon me.

Not true. I taught A&P school and learned a lot from my auto mechanic students. I currently work as a manufacturing engineer, but even that doesn't mean I have all the answers by a long shot. So, no need to apologize. We're all learning, if we want to.

Even my wife offers mechanical suggestions, that I wouldn't have though of, that turn out working.

 

[timpilot]

I couldn't get one of mine to break loose with my cheap little impact driver or my neighbors really good one. I tried for a couple of hours, luckily it never stripped the head of the bolt. What I did find that finally worked was to do it in reverse, sort of. I made a damper rod holding tool as described by Dannymax, 22mm I think. Then instead of using it to hold it from turning, I put the allen key in a vise , and then used the holding rod as a kind of wrench to undo it from the damper side of things instead of trying to turn the bolt. It worked almost immediately, no impact driver or anything. I think the bolt gets almost seized to the copper washer and just won't spin but the dampening rod will spin easily, took a minute or two. Good luck.

Matt

Matt

Thanks, Matt! That makes a lot of sense. Anybody else able to confirm or refute the 22mm hex to fit inside the top of the damper rod?

 

[CaptainKyle]

Instead of trying to drill the head off find you a long torx bit you don't care about bigger than the allen & beat it in there & use your impact & spin it out. This works about 99 % of the time with striped allen heads. Out of all the ones I have done which is tons I have never had one spin but I don't take the spring or anything out until I take the bolt out & I also have a pretty high dollar impact so that might make a difference.

 

[timpilot]

Problem solved. A friend with a lathe chucked up each fork tube and drilled the bolt heads off. If not for him, I probably would have done the same thing by hand.

Thanks to all who provided suggestions.

Now, what fork oil should I use? Sean recommends full-synthetic power steering fluid but I'm having trouble finding anything but Preston Asian Power Steering Fluid at $10 for 12 ounces.

 

[timpilot]

Now, what fork oil should I use? Sean recommends full-synthetic power steering fluid but I'm having trouble finding anything but Preston Asian Power Steering Fluid at $10 for 12 ounces.

I talked to Sean via email about fork oil alternatives. Seems the best and most affordable alternative is full-synthetic automatic transmission fluid. I found Valvoline full-synthetic ATF for $7 a quart at Wal-Mart. So, that's what l'm planning to use.

Hope this thread will prove useful to others replacing their fork seals. Many thanks to all who offered suggestions.

 

[one2dmax]

I have had a couple of sets recently that had to have a stubborn bolt drilled and extracted out. Thankfully I have a few spare bolts but starting to run low on them too.

I did experiment with another method of getting the seals out and actually had decent luck without making too much of a mess. This was with the later forks (93-07). Just removed the dust seal and locking wire, then wrapped the forks with thick rags while leaving it sitting in my big trash can. Aired up the forks to around 120psi and the seals finally pushed their way out. No disassembly rrequired other then to get the spring and spacer out, drain the remaining fluid, and refill/reassemble.

 

[timpilot]

I have had a couple of sets recently that had to have a stubborn bolt drilled and extracted out. Thankfully I have a few spare bolts but starting to run low on them too.

I did experiment with another method of getting the seals out and actually had decent luck without making too much of a mess. This was with the later forks (93-07). Just removed the dust seal and locking wire, then wrapped the forks with thick rags while leaving it sitting in my big trash can. Aired up the forks to around 120psi and the seals finally pushed their way out. No disassembly rrequired other then to get the spring and spacer out, drain the remaining fluid, and refill/reassemble.

That's very creative. Great idea!

 

[Fire-medic]

Did the 120 psi method require time to occur, or when you pressurized them, did they come-apart quickly?

 

[one2dmax]

One came apart within seconds (maybe even immediately). The other took probably 30-45 seconds or even a minute and I wasn't sure if it was going to come out at all. Then they didn't "fly" out but more rose up and one edge leaked fluid and air. That gave you enough of an edge of the seal to lift it out the rest of the way and off the fork.

I'll try to make another video!

 

[Gbianchi]

I'm gonna give this a shot, compressed air can work wonders.

 

[Fire-medic]

When compressed air wouldn't bust-loose a stuck brake caliper piston, I've used a method which requires thorough disassembly and cleaning, but I've never been defeated using this method. BTW, my air compressor does the job 99% of the time.

I just throw a bolt into the hose fitting, and open the brake bleeder, hook it to a grease gun, and fill the caliper with grease. The grease gun pressure is many-times more-than your compressor can generate. It's worked every time I've needed it.

From hearing Sean's fork seal removal trick, if you hear the fork give you a raspberry, that's the 'sound of success,' as the fork 'passes-gas,' past the seal as the seal lifts itself-out of the slider cavity.:fart: