Fork Seals - 30 December 2009

This is an extract of a recent post on the Biker Forum. The link to the original article is:

Hi Folks. Well A Merry New Year old things, Here’s another Episode of my drivel for you to laugh and poke fun at... its seems my wilfull neglect and the fine British winter finally caught up with the old RAGE bucket, and claimed its first wear-an-tear victim at last. The right hand fork seal decided to expire, ...and then, right on queue like clockwork.. the left hand one blew the following week.Deep Joy... so time for some good old winter maintenance and see what horrors wait inside the legs after 17 years and 46K miles.. (coz you can bet yer Mama's britches they have never had the oil changed.).



So in the time honoured tradition of Episodes one, to Seventeen, here's how the job went..

First, raked out the faithful paddock stand, and trolley jack to hike the front up and drop out the legs.. and just a little tip, i use a soft sponge loyblock to protect the collector, and jack on the cast bit so as not to crush it.



Ill rip through this as its hardly complex and i don't want to bore yooz all asleep... so.. calipers off. hows that for a crappy disc...lol)

Bungie 'em back to a foot peg to hold 'em out of the way.

Wheel out...!

Then i can get at the legs..top clamp loosed on me yokes.(Thats "Tripple Tree's Crash mate.!)

Little tip'ette.... drop the leg down, re-pinch it in the bottom clamp, and you can get 'old of it wiv yer 23mm o/e to crack the top cap thread. (but don't undo it, just "crack it off" Fnurk..!

Once out, lay it on the operating table, and ready the new parts.. left to right.."pair of new "Nikone" OE seals, some new dust caps, and some new oil... oh and the white thingermybob is a cunning 50p seal driver tool,, ill show you how it works in a mo..



Here's tip'ette number two... use the old "Ring spanner ploy" for undo of the bottom bolt.. (as im not a 'feshnial machanic with fancy "T" bar hex tools, my 3/8 alun key was all i had.. )

Now using a handy cat-litter-tray, drain out the old oil, and believe me when i say that smelled bad... you can't imagine... it was a cross between rotten eggs, and a vegetarians fart... phew.. need a brew.!, thats certainly hadn't been changed this century..!!

Whip out the cartridge, (its not under pressure like right-way-up forks,) and wash all they grey slurry off with some WD40.

Ive pumped the cartridge out and cleaned it.. its all fine so i see no need to strip it, all it now leaves is to swap the seals.

Now im sure you all know this bit... dust cap slid back... spring clip removed from its groove..(baby)..

And "Slider Hammer" it apart like a regular fork, taking out the seal in the process. (hey look, more sticky grey snot... yummy. garage now smells like the 'bean eating tent' at a vegan bike rally..!)

After a bit more vigerous cleanage, use a little thing to prize out the top bush.

Then arrange all the thingermybobs in a neat row, in order of disassemblage..
(so you can put them back in the right order, and the right way up)

Now, coz yer top bush lives in a little ridge, with well sharp edges an all that, you'll need to cover them up with some insulting tape to protect your new seal from getting damaged, and it also helps to whack on some jollop to help it all slide over-easy baby...!(or seal grease). Dont i look 'feshnial in my rubber gloves


Then its just a case of easing over the new dust cap, and oil seal and all the other wassnames in the right order...

Make sure the top bush snaps neatly back into its track and spins freely.

Right... now ready for the money saving tip of all time.... Seal drivers... they usualy cost between £45 and £60, and come one size only, and like i said, not being a pukker smartypants technissun', with walls of certifticates and a Snap-On account,,, i had to make do... so check out this little nugget....

You need about 7 inches of 36mm B&Q waste pipe, cut one but just shorter than the other (and cut them square mind) and then slit both bits open along thier length... and this is what you do with 'em.
open-up and snap the shorter one over the fork leg like this.

Then... take the whole lot off, replace it above the new oil seal, but this time also clip the second, longer tube over the top, and leave the "overhang" towards the seal. the outer sleave sits about 1mm off the fork surface, this ensures that it wont hit the soft rubber lip, but the hard outer collar instead.. and gently drive the oil seal in with a careful "slider hammer" action like before..

Project Rat Fighter - 23 November 2009

This last Episode is just to tell you how the shake down run went, and lay out the project from start to finish in pictures…..

The Day dawned overcast and wet.. but only drizzling, so nothing too drastic. I had a few other chores to get sorted too so after a spiffing “full English”, courtesy of MissyP, it was game on…

First of three non related jobs was clean the garage door of all the black over-spray, (it settles up on top when the door is open,) wash off the guttering of the house,,(been putting it off for months), and wash the van… (beginning to forget what colour it is)…

Dug out the Kharcher washer, and blasted off the door…. (Tick, done), then got to blasting the green stuff off the guttering, (Never fit white bloody guttering..DOH) . and so to the van…. And as soon at I started… the heavens opened… it bloody slung it down.. it was nothing short of sodding stair rods. And in two minutes I was soaked through…. Oh well, cant get any wetter now…

Finished the van, washed off the ZRX too for good measure….. and I was ready for action….

Excited, I pulled “RAGE” out blinking into the daylight for the first time…. (It looked smaller than it had wedged in the garage for months), and got the three main tasks under way. .

First was the swap the Handlebars over to the Ranthals I had painted the night before, and get all the controls connected back up and set comfortably, didn’t bother making that a ‘show-how’.. coz its just swapping bars, took ten minutes…

Then it was time for fuel… and button….! Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnn!

Drained a gallon out of the Kawasaki into a can, and very carefully, put it in Rage, stopping half way to check underneath for leaks (as the tank had been off)… all done, so slapped the cap shut, and rolled the pig down the drive to see if it would start….

Key on….Clicklicklicklicklicklick… primed.. (‘Lectric fuel pump) full choke, no throttle….and……”Press” …. Whirred over and over and over for what seemed like an age… stop.. let the starter cool down… right, what’s up… its got fuel… spark… “yeh cannie change the laws oh physics Jim”.. it should fire….

Hit the button again… spun over and over again, and began to cough,,, then cough more… ahh… empty float bowls… easy…

(the problem here is typical of old EXUPs… the pump, pumps only enough for the engines use… not enough to prime the carbs, if they run out of fuel the engine will die whilst the bowls remain full, as the pump “de-primes”, and stops.. thus creating a vacuum, therefore the bowls cannot be drained other than manually, or by evaporation (three months in the shed saw to that, so I needed to prime the carbs.).. there is an easy trick, just reached under, unplugged the coil input leads… spun it over for ten seconds till I smelt fuel, plugged them back in….

Press.. VROOM…. Yah hah haaa!… LIFE…!

It took about five minutes to warm right up, with the usual smoke and fumes from the paint on the headers.. but that was it.. soon it was ticking over by itself till the fan clicked in.. perfect… ready to ride.. where’s me lid…?

After so long out of the saddle I had forgotten how rapid this pig was…. And once out of the village, and on to the A350… I snapped it open to see if it still had the demons in the basement….. and fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…ck..
YUP. All still there…

Got it onto a long straight section, time to check my fave’ pastime… lets see if the front wheel still likes to fly… down to third, 50mph… load up the throttle, and ‘ping’ the clutch lever…… Now at this point, the world would usually go all blue and cloudy, the front would attempt to smack you in the face, and your gonads would retract for safety….ehh but not so today…this time the back end went squirmy, and began to try and overtake me.. bollocks.. 40ft wheelspin.. slowed down, and tried again… same result… rev limiter, and ‘rear end boogie’… maybe trying to wheelie it in soaking wet slimey country roads was not such a good idea… it would probably have gone all Casualty on the third attempt.

Once at the petrol station I decided it was prudent to have a look round it to see if it was the same collection of parts I left home with…. And yup.. all still there.. so slapped a tenner of unleaded in and headed for home… still amazed at the incredible top gear roll on I had forgotten about.. Just sit innocently at 70mph in top.. and snap the grip back and it just tries to tear your liver out of your arse… its just Phuquin Brutal, Naasty, Recalcitrant, and frightening, never has a bike lived up to its name so aptly…. RAGE… yeah, said that right..

Here’s a quick photo strip to show the transformation from Pretty looking 90’s sports bike, to Angry, Ugly, Brutal Rat Fighter…!

ENJOY..