Post by Jet⚡Black on Apr 3, 2013 17:12:19 GMT -6
I thought I would add a quicker and easier way if your forks have the air assist option...
Remove the drain bolts at the bottom of the fork legs, drain them off. Put the drain bolts back in.
Separate the dust seals from the fork legs and slide them up the tubes out of the way, then remove the retainer rings on top of the seals.
Remove the front end, this is easy to accomplish by loosening the trees and sliding the forks out of them from the bottom, so make sure to lift the bike high enough to slip them out and stable enough so the change in weight won't make the bike flop front to back or over side to side.
Once the front end is off, remove the top cap off of the fork tubes.
Get out an air compressor and start pumping air into the air nozzle at the top of a fork, at around 100 psi, the seal will blow itself out of the leg from the air pressure...repeat on the second leg.
Slide the old covers and seals off the tubes, clean their seats and the tubes, slide the new seals on the forks, clean the old seals and dust covers. Now slide the old seals on top of the new and use them to seat the new seals, then slide them back off and put the retainer rings back in, now slide the dust covers on.
find a socket with an extension that fits the air valve nut and push down to remove the retainer rings, then the valve just comes out. fill the tubes to the recommended CC's of oil and put the valves back in, place the retainer ring back in, then push put the socket extension back on and push down and pop the retainers back in place... do not push down on the tubes just the valve plate...unless you want oil coming out everywhere from compressing the fork.
Put the front end back up into the trees, making sure they match height in the trees.
Then torque the tree bolts, done.
I know it might sound like a lot... but if everything is in place it will take about an hour where doing it by removing all of the internals takes several hours... can possibly strip the allen at the bottom of the forks, and if you don't have tool to keep the internals from spinning... it even more work than need be.
Here's crossing the fingers that you have the air assist type if you change out your seals... because the other route of removing the internals is a horrible ordeal imo.
Remove the drain bolts at the bottom of the fork legs, drain them off. Put the drain bolts back in.
Separate the dust seals from the fork legs and slide them up the tubes out of the way, then remove the retainer rings on top of the seals.
Remove the front end, this is easy to accomplish by loosening the trees and sliding the forks out of them from the bottom, so make sure to lift the bike high enough to slip them out and stable enough so the change in weight won't make the bike flop front to back or over side to side.
Once the front end is off, remove the top cap off of the fork tubes.
Get out an air compressor and start pumping air into the air nozzle at the top of a fork, at around 100 psi, the seal will blow itself out of the leg from the air pressure...repeat on the second leg.
Slide the old covers and seals off the tubes, clean their seats and the tubes, slide the new seals on the forks, clean the old seals and dust covers. Now slide the old seals on top of the new and use them to seat the new seals, then slide them back off and put the retainer rings back in, now slide the dust covers on.
find a socket with an extension that fits the air valve nut and push down to remove the retainer rings, then the valve just comes out. fill the tubes to the recommended CC's of oil and put the valves back in, place the retainer ring back in, then push put the socket extension back on and push down and pop the retainers back in place... do not push down on the tubes just the valve plate...unless you want oil coming out everywhere from compressing the fork.
Put the front end back up into the trees, making sure they match height in the trees.
Then torque the tree bolts, done.
I know it might sound like a lot... but if everything is in place it will take about an hour where doing it by removing all of the internals takes several hours... can possibly strip the allen at the bottom of the forks, and if you don't have tool to keep the internals from spinning... it even more work than need be.
Here's crossing the fingers that you have the air assist type if you change out your seals... because the other route of removing the internals is a horrible ordeal imo.