I have busted the living crap out of my left fork seal. It's leaving a puddle in my garage floor. I have new seals on the way. Anyone done this job on a bagger? Any pointers. I did this on a 1983 Goldwing many years ago. It wasn't that bad on the Goldwing (fairing didn't need to come off) but, it looks more detailed on this bike.

I have read that people use Dextron for fork oil. Apparently that's a fairly common practice. Any thoughts on that? I spoke with a metric bike mechanic who said it was a common practice. He says that 5 weight oil gives a softer ride and 10 weight oil gives a harder ride.

 

Hardest problem I had was removing the allen head bolts at the bottom of the forks that release the cartrage, they are soft and round easy. A impact and a good allen socket was need to get the bolts out, a basic allen wrench wanted to round them out.

 

Exactly right, but you don't have to freak out if it happens. Just use a drill bit the same size as the head of the bolt to drill the head off. Once you pull the slider off the rest of the bolt can be removed by hand.

 

Look on my site under DIY. Motul fork oil lite/5W costs around $15/L & for your job you will need 1 L. I guess if you go to the Dollar Store you can get some Chinese Trans fluid for under $6 so, ya, that is a big savings on your part.

If you modify your damper rods you will not need to use anything more than 5W by controlling/adjusting the fork oil level for more or less compression. Your fork bushings are worn out after 10K miles and a full tear down is necessary. If your riding style can not tell the difference than you do not need to do so. Here is Amy showing you how to do it the proper way.

 

As Howard points out, Amy will show you what you have to do!

 

Can we just pay Amy to come over and do it? I have 3 or 4 sets of forks laying around the garage......no bike to put them on but...what the hell

 

I believe she rides a Buell, so could be round in no time!!!

 

Thanks for the vids. I bought HD fork oil while I was there ordering new brake lines. The oil seals are here, I bought a Genuine James fork seal kit as I had great luck with their base gaskets.

I have the outer fairing off and it's a mess in there. There doesn't appear to be a simple way to get all that apart to get the forks off. It's like looking under the dash of a car with wires going everywhere. I'll get all that off tomorrow night. I notice that there are big rubber collars on the fork tubes on top of the lower triple tree. It looks like everything in there has to come apart piece by piece rather than being able to remove the inner fairing as a unit.

 

I just finished this job on my 85 and installed the mono tubes. I have the dash above handlebars and yes it all had to be removed, it's not that hard as all the wires have connectors and come apart. Be sure to take a lot of pics as you disassemble and you will have a record of install. It's also a good time to clean and lube the connectors in the dash and check the head bearing and bar bushings. The big rubber collars are your fork stops and the HD fluid is a 7.5 the SE is a 20. Remember to double and triple check you can never be to safe when it comes to the front end.
Cheers

 

If you use an allen wrench with the slightly rounded ends it will be difficult to get a good bite on the bolt. If you don't have an impact use the straight cut end allen wrench. It''s worked for me when the others wouldn't.