Fork Seal & Bushing Replacement

[Denver_FJR]

Great write-up by FJRed although I see he hasn't frequented here in a while.

Wanted to update the Pilot Exhaust tip may be hit & miss or has changed. I picked up the exact model used by FJRed but it had a knarly seam running the length of the tube that prevented it from fitting over fork tube. It is a heavy piece of steel and I saw no easy way to remove the seam from the entire length. I ended up buying aluminum tubing from an online supplier and it worked fine. Tubing dimensions are 2" OD x 1.902" ID x .049" wall 6061-T6 Aluminum Tube (Tubing)-12".

 

[lonerider]

. It is a heavy piece of steel and I saw no easy way to remove the seam from the entire length. I ended up buying aluminum tubing from an online supplier and it worked fine. Tubing dimensions are 2" OD x 1.902" ID x .049" wall 6061-T6 Aluminum Tube (Tubing)-12".

I used an air die grinder to knock down that weld bead, first with a round stone, then polished with a flap wheel. If the trigger is tied down with a large rubber band, a small die grinder will go a good way through 2" exhaust tubing.

 

[Mr_Canoehead]

Mine had welding slag inside, too. I filed it down with a half-moon file. Took about 5 mins. Tool worked great. I'd recommend using a blind bearing puller or steering head bearing puller to get the top bushing out - mine didn't budge when I pulled the inner tube.

My bushings were showing signs of wear at 31k miles and the bike feels better with the new bushings and oil installed. The old oil only had about 12k miles on it but was pretty dark.

 

[laminated]

to add , if you take want to undo the lower bolt, loosen the top , so you can bottom the tube on the spring .then push down hard on the top so it seats the spring hard against the rod;s spring seat as someone takes an impact to loosen the bolt as the spring keeps the rod from turning. thats a work around my guy used. but you should get a new seal for the bolt as spinning the bolt fast will marr the seal . Also, pulling the tube out will tear up the teflon of the bushes,also if the bike has over 15000 miles on it, you can bet the 3 bushes with have the teflon worn off them so have those available.and a seal for the bolt. my guy used a thin piece of pipe from a portable shelter about 2 in wide. and 10 in long with several 1/4" cuts at the top so you can bent them 90 degrees for a seat for hammering, to tap the middle and top bush back in. , they used a rubber hammer and had a rag between the pipe piece and the tube. you will use over 700 mls of oil also vs the 696 they said.

 

[draco_1967]

I wanted to add a little tip for removing the bolt at the bottom of the fork to get the damper assembly out. I used a piece of 1 1/2 inch square tubing from Home Depot to lock the 26mm nut in the fork in place. It worked perfectly. I don't weld (yet), so I needed a solution. Hopefully this will help someone else like me

 

[draco_1967]

Correction: it is 1 1/4 inch square tubing

 

[cwisner01]

I know this is an old thread, but why cant I see any of the pictures from any posts in this thread? I can see pics on other threads.

 

[RossKean]

I know this is an old thread, but why cant I see any of the pictures from any posts in this thread? I can see pics on other threads.

The pictures were not hosted on this forum originally so they "went away" after the OP left the forum a number of years ago. Good news is that I had a saved version of the original thread and Mark Johnson (Bounce) posted it on his FJR-Tips site. Here is the link to the specific thread:

https://www.fjr-tips.org/maint/ForkSeal-BushingReplacement.pdf
And to Mark's site - home page:
https://www.fjr-tips.org/maint/maint.html
FJRed did a great job on this...

 

[cwisner01]

OMG, Thank you!!!!