Yes and yes. When I pulled mine years and miles ago I found a chip of the seal bonded to the face of the piston in the bottom of the fork slider. And yes, the bushing is oval, oriented long axis parallel to the direction of piston movement. I have poSTed this on the forums many times over the years (see #4 and #15 above).
Thank's John
Hi John, is it too late to ask what you found that was badly worn? I am interested in what you found that wears, as I am about to check mine after 27 years. My Haynes manual says to replace seals/orings as mandatory by nothing about the piston itself. The piston looks to have a bushing near the top. Have you found the piston to be badly worn? Anything else?When I did mine I replaced all but the big plate and its bolts (#5 and #6).
John
I think you have a good point about the anti-dive Christian, I have the same bike you have, and I'm assuming you don't have ABS like myself either. I was having some wheel lock up in the back too, but I realized that it may have been a tire issue. Although like you, I'm curious if my anti-dive is working, I have a leaky fork seal on that same side as the anti-dive unit (BTW, I haven't spent even a minute researching to see if the leaky seal would affect the anti-dive) I just wanted to say that once I put new tires on, the skidding rear tire has pretty much gone away. Also could be a combination of the two.Riding my ST1100 since only two years, and this beeing my first road bike, I guess I'm getting maybe too confident with it.
It is the third time in two months that I lock my rear wheel (for a few seconds) while braking (apparently too hard) at speed (60 mph).
I use to say that with a motorcycle, we only have two wheels to break, but when this happens, I have the feeling I only have one : the front one, since I feel the front bike is plunging due to the weight transfer, and that's probably why the rear locks.
I certainly have to learn to ease the throttle a bit more in advance, and braking more progressively (what I normally do), but in the same time, I'm wondering if it is not related to my Anti-Dive not preventing enough the plunge of the fork.
It is certainly possible. My ST has 22 years, low mileage, been sitting in a garage for years, so, I'm sure it is still the original fork oil and the anti-dive was never replaced or maintained.
Nothing was badly worn, Garry. I explained my issue in post 24 above. The next time you take the fork off to properly replace the suspension fluid, just pull the anti-dive apart and inspect it. After I replaced my piston the proper functioning of the unit was quite apparent during quick/firm-and-hold application of the front brake - the forks started to compress and then stopped. I’d gotten used to ‘spongy’ front braking. FWIW, I suspect my failure was a very rare occurrence, but checking yours is easy and dead simple.
