Fork seal replacement

[bib]

One of my fork seals is leaking and the forks no longer hold air. I'm planning on taking care of this before the riding season. What parts am i likely to need for the job? ...don't need parts numbers...I can look them up. Thanks

 

[joedrum]

Hmm let’s see fork seals fork bushing ...hmm the mechanic angel for that bolt to loosen in the bottom of fork leg ...sheesh I think that’s it ...others may know something I’m missing ...dust seals if you need and can find them ...sheesh been long time since I did one

 

[pidjones]

Seals are readily available. ATF fluid for refill. If like the GL1000 forks, the biggest hassle is getting the old seals out and cleaning everything. Hint: Drain them first, then loosen the bottom bolt before loosening the top plug (the spring helps keep the inner part from spinning. Once broken loose, use an air impact to spin the bolt out. Do this all with it still held in the triple trees. Including removing the top plug.

 

[saganaga]

Seal kit - used an aftermarket one, IIRC.

There's a metal piece that gets destroyed if you use the fork lowers as a slide hammer to separate the forks. Don't recall if that is part of the kit or not.

Had to drill out one of the allen bolts at the bottom of the fork. There's a copper sealing washer behind it - destroyed it while drilling it out, but tbh, I'd recommend replacing it anyways.

The brushing on my fork wasn't perfect, but I reused it. May be worth replacing.

May also be worth upgrading to progressive springs. At 50k miles, mine were still within spec.

Also just used 10W hydraulic oil when I redid it. YMMV. Think the old ATF was around 7W, but I had good luck with the 10W.

 

[indianakid]

The fork does not have to be disassembled to replace the seal. The procedure is in the factory manual. Here is a post That I did back on Feb 02, 2014 .

https://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopi ... 36#p111236

Good Luck !!!

 

[D-50Dave]

I read that my '81 called for 20W oil, so I went with 20W50 Castrol. Seems fine to me. My original springs got replaced with Progressives. I'm a pretty basic skill level mechanic and I had no real trouble doing this job with the forks remaining in place.
https://classicgoldwings.com//forum/vie ... 23&t=12325