Help with Honda tool

[boxerscott]

Aaaargh! just noticed whilst stripping the front end of my Honda VTR 1000 sp y that I have a fork seal letting by. Job is easy peasy but I need a damper rod holding tool to help disengage the slider from the outer. The part no is 07ymb mcf 0101 and David Silver want £115 for it. It is only a tool I would use once (I hope) so it would make sense to hire one. They are Showa 43mm forks fitted to the bike. Can any one help?

[DaveH]

You don't need a special tool to remove the seals !!!!!
You only need it to remove the damper cartridge.
Don't know why Honda insist on putting this procedure in all the workshop manuals - I suppose they assume a full strip every time a seal is leaking.

Loosen top yoke clamp only
Loosen end cap before removing fork leg from yoke (easier whilst its clamped up in the bottom clamp)
Undo bottom clamp bolt
Remove fork leg
Unscrew top cap and remove from threaded shaft.
Remove spacers and springs etc. noting order they are assembled in
Prise the dust seal out carefully with a small screwdriver.
Remove circlip from under dust seal
Grab upper(outer) leg with one hand and slider (lower) with the other.
Compress and then pull apart sharply.
Repeat until slider comes out of leg with seals, bushes etc.
Remove bushes carefully.
Remove seal.
Reassemble in reverse order with new seals and/or bushes.



Tip - wrap some THIN parcel tape around the end of the slider when replacing the seal - helps to stop any sharp edges on the edge of the tube damaging the new seal.

The damper cartridge stays put throughout the process - NO need to remove

Simples

[boxerscott]

Brilliant!. Was following workshop manual procedure. Do I have to buy a fork seal driver or can they be persuaded in with an alternative method. Looks like it is only a form of slide hammer that will not damage slider?

Cheers much appreciated.

[andy griff]

Power of the forum in practice, saving people money and sharing expertise !

[slparry]

In the past I've found it easy to leave the stanchion clamped to the yokes, the friction provided by the spring bearing on the damper rod has been sufficient to allow the bottom leg bolt to come undone then remove the lower leg with the stanchions still on the bike, change seal shove the lower leg back on then once bolted up undo the top bolt to sort the oil out.

[Bikerhoss]

On previous bikes I used an old broom handle to hold the internals in place to allow me to dismantle everything, Just make a point on the end of the handle, feed it down the leg so that it effectively jams and stops the rod from spinning, Presto
Just use a large socket to tap the seal home, it doesn't take much force, put a little fork oil on the seal first to help it seat.

[boxerscott]

Quality! I thought as much, not very brave at trying to be brave but never scared to ask the man who knows how

[DaveH]

:) Brilliant!. Was following workshop manual procedure. Do I have to buy a fork seal driver or can they be persuaded in with an alternative method. Looks like it is only a form of slide hammer that will not damage slider?

Cheers much appreciated.

Sorry for late reply

A fork seal driver makes life easier, but you don't have to use one and if you get one it has to be the right size for the stanchion. Laser do an adjustable one, but a bespoke sized one is better. They do cost a lot for what they are though.

You can use a length of plastic waste pipe tube (the white or black poly pipe stuff) to push the seal in. Get the correct size to fit around the stanchion, cut a short length off and slit it full length to enable you to get it on and off easily, and to 'adjust' the width slightly to sit on the outer edges of the seal.

When pushing the seal home, the important thing is to drive it in SQUARELY until it seats against the detent stop. If it goes in skewiff you will have t pull it out and start again.

Make sure that you push on the OUTER edges of the seal where the metal reinforcement is.

Once its started and square in the housing I have sometines used a blunt flat faced drift to LIGHTLY tap it home a SMALL bit at a time around the edges.

[boxerscott]

Quality posts. Thanks. So I decided to go the whole hog and have the fork damper rods out, I made my own damper rod assembly holding tool. http://s872.photobucket.com/upload You will have to click on library and it is the one with the tea mug in

From a length of 28mm od copper pipe. Its a perfect fit in the collar of the rod assembly all I had to do was dremmel away castellations. Next I made my own oil seal seating tool out of a 42mm od MUPVC solvent weld waste pipe coupling. I simply cut one socket end off before the middle stop and then put a longitudinal cut into it to spring it on to the sliding tube. As it is a goes over fitting it is thicker and a larger diameter than the standard waste pipe and was a perfect mating face for the seal. Cost £1.00 Fork springs were well within tolerance and surprisingly the fork oil was relatively clean apart from some darker heavier stuff at lower levels.

With a bit of muscle and clean fork oil lubrication it was easy to snap the oil seals in. Fitted new o rings to damper rod holding bolt and fork cap assemblies.Used 1.26litres of Castrol Grand Prix Synthetic 10wt fork oil at £4.99 per 500ml from Halfords (on my trade card). Put everything back to standard settings. My forks now no leaky Thanks again.

[dave the german]

Bet you booked the pipe out to a job!!