Fork Seal Replacement

[gazzafield]

I have dismantled my fork legs to change the seals and they have come apart reasonably easily. I have found something a little odd. The right hand leg (as you look at it sat on the bike) has a very small spring at the bottom of the lower damper rod. Just a three coil lightweight little thing. The left hand leg doesn't. As the stanchions separated somewhat abruptly I wondered if I had just lost it in my garage.

I have an old set of fork legs after an altercation with a van (ahem!), so I took the right fork leg of the old ones apart and it too had no little spring. Is this normal?

So, now that I would like to re-assemble with new seals I have come across something else which is new to me, having only ever taken "little" bike forks apart for seal changes. The outer tube bushing came out with the stanchion, which my manual informs me is as intended. However, it states that the bush needs to be driven back in in using a piece of pipe and a slide hammer action. Fair enough. The difficulty will be finding an ideal piece of pipe to fit. But is this method necessary? Is there another way? Anybody recommend the type of pipe to use?

[gazzafield]

The mystery of the tiny spring has been solved. It's jammed in the white plastic bottom bush which is jammed in the bottom of the upper stanchion. Still no advice about the bushing though.

[teejayexc]

From memory I think a length of plastic pipe, the type used for kitchen/ bathroom sink waste outlets, will do the job.

[gazzafield]

Plastic? Really? I didn't think it would be strong enough. But then I suppose some of those waste pipes are quite robust. I'll give it a whirl.

[chris900divvy]

I did mine this way.
Plastic drain tubing from B&Q lovely and cheap, cut two pieces a few inches long with a slit all the way down the middle to bottom to get it on to the fork tube with it spread open.
A couple of jubilee clips to secure the two pieces (slide one down over the other so it overlaps) tightly against the fork tube and you can gradually pump them into place with your blows bringing them down hard against the bush.
Plenty of grease goes a long way to getting them in, they are a tight fit but they get there eventually with some effort - make sure they line up properly with the grooves in the forks otherwise your seals won't go in deep enough and the clip will be difficult to fit.
You can use the same two pieces of drain pipe to get the fork seals into place, but position them so the inner one is apart from the soft inner section of the fork seal to avoid damage as you only want to put pressure on the hard outer section.
Cheap and effective method I think!

[m40man]

May 3, 2016 20:21:31 GMT chris900divvy said:

I did mine this way.
Plastic drain tubing from B&Q lovely and cheap,

Same here. Though I don't know if my pipe's product name offers the same 'Floplast' promise .

[gazzafield]

Finally got the bike all back together and took it today. Front feels as tight as a drum. Makes me realise just "loose" the front end had become. However, I now have a little clicking noise on the rebound of the forks. Which is annoying.