Blown seals...

[indypup]

I had an unfortunate experience with my suspension during my past trip to Alaska. I blew both forks seals as well as the shock seal. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing happening? I hit some rough patches on the AK highway. I bottomed out the forks once and got airborn (not bad, but I did leave the ground. ) over a frost heave once. I have a racetech setup with the forks with RT seals and a Hyperpro rear shock with 4way adjustability and remote reservoir. I'm wondering if the dust/bugs might have been the culprit. I also have a mc larry fork brace on the front with the little fork bug deflectors.

It rained very little on the trip and I never washed the bike. I wiped my forks off a couple of times and didn't notice the leaking until I was in AK. For the rear shock, I didn't notice the leaking until I got home and started cleaning the bike. I have the +08 side cover over the opening to the shock so I didn't see it leaking until I took it off.

Has anyone blown out fork seals by bottoming the forks? I'm leaning towards my lack of cleaning as the culprit at the moment. The dust was crazy on those roads in the construction areas which there was a lot of and I didn't wipe down the forks often enough and I've never done anything to clean the rear shock.

Thoughts?

 

[George]

Blew a seal? Are you sure it's not just cream? (old joke. )

Combination of dirt, harsh use, and time/miles. Fix it 'n GO RIDE!!!!

Just did fork seals on STick over the weekend, just normal maintenance to me.

Is your shock rebuildable? I had the Works shock on STick (originally on ReSTored) rebuilt, only cost a little over $100. I've heard one of the fancy suspension places will even rebuild the stock shock. (BTW, the Works had well over 100,000 miles when the seal blew. Nothing like riding a pogo stick for 1500 miles to get'er back home. )

 

[indypup]

Nothing like riding a pogo stick for 1500 miles to get'er back home.

lol, yep that's what it's currently like. I feel like a bobble-head doll. lol

I called and I have a 5 year warranty on the Hyperpro so I'll pull it off and put the crappy OEM one back on for now. I've never replaced the fork seals myself, how hard is it to do? Do you need any special tools? I mailed the forks off to racetech and they did all the work the last time...

 

[George]

lol, yep that's what it's currently like. I feel like a bobble-head doll. lol

I called and I have a 5 year warranty on the Hyperpro so I'll pull it off and put the crappy OEM one back on for now. I've never replaced the fork seals myself, how hard is it to do? Do you need any special tools? I mailed the forks off to racetech and they did all the work the last time...

Don't know how much change inside the forks with the RaceTech internals. Changing out the seals and bushings is a POC (Piece Of Cake). Disassembly and reassembly of the stock pieces requires no special tools except a looong 6mm piece of allen key to get into the bolt at the bottom of each fork leg. I cut off the long part of an L wrench and glued it into a 6mm socket. With that bolt removed, and the spring key keeper on top of the seal removed, you can use the two pieces of the fork as a slide hammer to remove the seal. Disassemble, clean, install new bushings and seal. To set the new seal, I put the old seal on top of it and use a piece of 2x6 with an appropriate size hole as a hammer to get the seal to seat.

Reassemble and yur ready to go. John Oo will shoot me for saying so, but I use volume instead of level to add the fluid.

I found, on the right fork, no need to remove the spring from the damper rod. Just remove the top cap from the top end of the rod (14 mm open end and 17mm allen needed.) When refilling, the slider leg is longer than the rod, so easy to pour in fluid even with the spring in place.

Tuffest part (to me) of this job is installing the cap on the left fork. Ya have to compress the spring and turn the cap at the same time. I did this: with the spring removed, install the cap so you can locate the point at which the threads begin to merge. Mark the cap (^) with an arrow that point directly away from you. Start with the arrow pointed just left of the contact point. Now, with yur allen in place, compress the spring and cap straight down (ya gotta get a feel for the apprpriate point 'cause ya DON'T want to cross thread the fine threads on these pieces. I clampe the fork and tube into my WorkMate vertically, with the bottom of the slider setting on the floor. Then I stand on the step so I can get my full weight onto the spring/cap/wrench. Usually takes me about 4 or 5 attempts to "get it right". Once started, the cap screws in easily enuff.

This time, I had to drill out the head of the bottom bolt on the left fork. If I'd'a had a left hand drill bit, it would'a probably broken loose before the head came off. The stub came out easily enuff, tho, so no harm, no foul.

All the forks I've rebuilt for years are similar, just keep yur parts in correct order for reassembly. I had to check the service manual once to make sure I had all parts properly oriented, but my forks are stock except for the springs.

Good luck if ya do it yurself, and keep us poSTed.

 

[Scooter]

Reassemble and yur ready to go. John Oo will shoot me for saying so, but I use volume instead of level to add the fluid.

I found, on the right fork, no need to remove the spring from the damper rod. Just remove the top cap from the top end of the rod (14 mm open end and 17mm allen needed.) When refilling, the slider leg is longer than the rod, so easy to pour in fluid even with the spring in place.

Tuffest part (to me) of this job is installing the cap on the left fork. Ya have to compress the spring and turn the cap at the same time. I did this: with the spring removed, install the cap so you can locate the point at which the threads begin to merge. Mark the cap (^) with an arrow that point directly away from you. Start with the arrow pointed just left of the contact point. Now, with yur allen in place, compress the spring and cap straight down (ya gotta get a feel for the apprpriate point 'cause ya DON'T want to cross thread the fine threads on these pieces. I clampe the fork and tube into my WorkMate vertically, with the bottom of the slider setting on the floor. Then I stand on the step so I can get my full weight onto the spring/cap/wrench. Usually takes me about 4 or 5 attempts to "get it right". Once started, the cap screws in easily enuff.

This time, I had to drill out the head of the bottom bolt on the left fork. If I'd'a had a left hand drill bit, it would'a probably broken loose before the head came off. The stub came out easily enuff, tho, so no harm, no foul.

All the forks I've rebuilt for years are similar, just keep yur parts in correct order for reassembly. I had to check the service manual once to make sure I had all parts properly oriented, but my forks are stock except for the springs.

Good luck if ya do it yurself, and keep us poSTed.

All good advice if you're fixing an 1100...

George, on the 1300 both shocks are the same but then again I'm not sure what's in Indypups custom setup. BTW, John O is correct... :

 

[indypup]

I emailed racetech to get the details of what is involved with replacing the bushings and seals. I'm not sure what they did inside the forks. I know they put in new springs and gold valves and put on new fork caps that give me external adjustability but I'm not sure how the internals work. I've talked to them in the past on the phone but I don't remember the details. i know there is a rod attached to the fork caps with some kind of needle valve on the other end. The left fork handles compression and the right does rebound. I'm sure I'll find out when I take them apart. I'll take some pics for you guys.