I did this for the first time on my, about to turn over 100k miles, ST1300. I have not ridden it much in the last three years, but I found a puddle of fork oil under the left seal, so I went ahead and replaced both. I did the YouTube thing and I have a shop manual, but the job was more difficult than I imagined. Ebay has a kit for $98 delivered that contains all you need, except for the about 1300 CCs of fork oil necessary.
I am glad I got into the forks as all four of the bushings were almost completely worn out.
Also, be aware, if you do this job, it is very messy. Have lots of shop towels ready. It also helps to have another set of hands.
All went well until time to replace the upper guide bushings. Talk about a tight fit?! I had to use a punch on the seal back up rings to get them to go all the way in. then one of the seals themselves required a lot of force to get fully seated, using my homemade PVC driver. It took a long PVC pipe and a small sledge hammer to do the job. It all finally got back together and is working fine.
I am glad I got into the forks as all four of the bushings were almost completely worn out.
Also, be aware, if you do this job, it is very messy. Have lots of shop towels ready. It also helps to have another set of hands.
All went well until time to replace the upper guide bushings. Talk about a tight fit?! I had to use a punch on the seal back up rings to get them to go all the way in. then one of the seals themselves required a lot of force to get fully seated, using my homemade PVC driver. It took a long PVC pipe and a small sledge hammer to do the job. It all finally got back together and is working fine.
