Fork Fix

I had to take off work this Wednesday for personal reasons and decided to work on the forks to get that gushing leak fixed.  We wouldn't want Margaret to be parted from practicing too long. Honestly, I was apprehensive before getting down to work on this task.  I know its messy and the bike is old so parts are difficult to come by if something goes wrong and breaks.

We began by raising the front end with a floor jack and a 2x4 under the frame. Then we removed the calipers and zip tied them to the frame to keep them out of the way.  Doing this prevents having to drain the brake fluid and bleeding the brakes when reassembling.  Then off came the wheel and fender.  I removed the fork oil drain plug from the left side and then realized we had not taken any pictures.

I drained most of the fork oil out of the left side on this picture.  There wasn't much oil left.  Each fork takes 11.9 fl. oz. and there was barely enough in there to even coat the bottom of the oil pan.

This one is from the top cap looking down into the fork before removing it from the bike.  It's easier to get the cap off while the fork is still secured before removing it from the bike.

And finally, the fork is out, now drained completely and ready to remove the old seal and slide the new one on, fill them with fork oil, and put them back on the bike.

Total time from start to finish for both forks was just under 3 hours.  Not bad, they work great and don't leak anymore.  I also raised them an extra 1.5 inches in the triple tree so it would lower the bike a bit and hopefully give her a bit more foot on the ground when coming to a stop.  By doing this I also lost 1.5 inches in suspension travel but were not riding the bike hard and it would be difficult to bottom them out anyways.

This weekend is supposed to be up to 80 degrees and I am looking forward to using the entire time dedicated to riding.  Saturday I have another ride with Cowtown Motorcycle Group and its about a 300 mile ride. Sunday looks like a good day to get Margaret back out for some more practice.  Our HOG chapter is having a skills day on Sunday so were going to take the Kawasaki out there to have some company while she practices.

New blog reports from all of this will be coming soon!