Fork Rebuild by Diesel

Ok. Here goes. I did this a bit backwards but with the aid of the manuals on this site it should all be fairly clear.

First off ill assume you all know the basics of wheel removal , brakes etc and how to actually remove the individual fork legs. when you have the fork legs off (pic 1) the first thing you need to do is remove the bolt from the bottom of the fork leg. pic 2 must be removed from pic 3. its hard to see but its there. There can be problems arising as the internals can spin at times and the only way round this is either keep at it and eventually it will come away, use the correct tool or get a mate with an airgun ( ratchet gun not rifle) to spin it free.Bear in mind tho that when it is free the oil will come out so get a container ready.

Next , remove the dust cover and seal spring clip ( pics 4 + 5 and pic 6 is a close up of the clip ). Next turn the fork the right way up and undo the top of the fork leg ( pic 7 ). This allows you to remove the fork internals AFTER you grab the gold part of the fork,then grab the chrome stanchion or leg bottom, and pull them apart HARD. It takes a fair bit of force sometimes so maybe a mate on either end and tug. ooer :) Basically when you have done this and removed the bushes, and dust seal and seals you should be left with a pile of parts that look like this. (pic 11)

You may notice that the leg bottom on mine has been removed. This was done as it makes it a whole lot cheaper to re-chrome fork stanchions if they have nothing else to do other than chrome the legs.WARNING!! You must remove the grub screw(pic 10) on the fork bottom first, then unscrew the leg bottom. it can be hard to undo but if you look carefully on the other end of the stanchion there is a hole that can be used to put a suitable tool through whilst unscrewing.

To install the seals , and bushes if you are doin so its basically a reversal of extraction. TIP. Before putting the dust and oil seals on the legs apply pvc tape to the guide bush groove (pic 12). This stops the groove ruining the lip on the seals. You can use oil too if you wish. You will need to place the dust seal, seal, metal ring and thick guide bush on the stanchion ( pic 9) before then removing the tape and placing the thinner guide bush ( pic 15) in its place in the groove.Then reinstall the internals into the outer gold leg. (pic 20 )and screw it down tight making sure the black O ring doesnt get nipped up.( pic 7) Turn the fork wrong way up and slide the chrome stanchion with all the parts attached into the gold outer leg. TIP: Tape up the metal ring and the parts above it out of the way on the leg, it makes the next bit easier.

What you need to do now is hammer home the thick guide bush back into the gold outer leg. BE CAREFUL. If you knock the chrome you could dent it and therefore need to get it re-chromed. This can take a bit of patience but tap it gently all the way around until it goes no further. ( You can usually tell by the difference in sound when you knock it ) Then slide the plain metal ring down, then the seal, this may need tapping home too but if you do it gently and without using a sharp screwdriver then you should be fine. Then re-attach the wavy oil seal retaining clip and slide the dust cover over that.

Turn the leg up the other way and you will need to put the allen bolt back in the bottom to hold the internals together and stop oil leaking out of the bottom. You may wish to use a new washer but they can be a pain to get out sometimes. Also use a non permanent thread lock on the allen bolt.Then its just a case of adding oil. I havent done this yet but looking at the manuals on this site it seems to just be a case of undoing the top of the forks again and adding oil. Someone correct me if im wrong. This is how i did mine and all went well, but im sure there are always other ways of doing it. Hope this helps.

Diesel.