Bouncy ride - would new springs help?

[bat-kam]

Was just thinking if it would be a good idea to change the seals at the same time?
The issues that I can see are undoing the bolts at the bottom of the forks that hold the insides in place and the 'PCV tube' or something else to use to push the oil seal in place
Again, i have no vice to hand


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Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I

If the seals are still sealed, leave them alone.

This

[TamSV]

Originally Posted by bat-kam

Was just thinking if it would be a good idea to change the seals at the same time?

As has been said, if they're not leaking then there's no point in changing the seals.

It's worth mentioning that you'll be compressing the fork fully so make sure there's no rust spots etc on the top part of the fork. Otherwise you could damage the seals when you compress the fork and then you will need to change them.

Originally Posted by bat-kam

The issues that I can see are undoing the bolts at the bottom of the forks that hold the insides in place and the 'PCV tube' or something else to use to push the oil seal in place
Again, i have no vice to hand

You don't need to undo the damper rod bolt at the bottom of the forks unless you're fully dismantling them to change bushes or seals - as discussed you don't need to do that.

You don't need a vice either.

Basically, get the bike supported on your rear stand and get the front end in the air - either with a headstock stand, jack under the motor, or one of the range of heath robinson lash ups that'll do the same job.

Remove brake calipers and tie them up out the way. Remove front wheel and mudguard. Loosen top yoke pinch bolts (the ones on the sides of the yoke). Crack the top nuts on each fork leg - just to loosen them off rather than remove them.

Then loosen the bottom yoke pinch bolts and slide out the forks.

Take the top cap off each fork, remove the spacer, washer and spring, and tip out the old oil. Pump the forks and leave them upside down for a bit to make sure it all comes out.

Turn the fork up the right way and fully compress it. Fill with oil, stroke the fork in and out a couple dozen times or so to remove air, top up oil to the specified height, extend the fork and put the spring/washer/spacer back in. Pop the top cap back on and tighten it by hand.

Put the forks back on the bike, nip up the bottom yoke pinch bolts. This holds the fork while you torque up the top cap properly. Then refit wheel/tighten everything up properly etc.

Get yourself a manual and follow it. The manual has to include everything so it will show full disassembly of the forks but, as described above, you can ignore that. It'll also tell you how to take apart the top cap/preload adjuster. You don't need to do that either.

HTH.

[bat-kam]

And I was able to do the change last weekend. It took me just under 4 hours, so not bad.
I had few issues:
I was missing alan key no 12 - quick trip to b&q
The dome bolt on left hand side holding the mud guard was totally locked. So i had to drill it out.

The rest went OK

I was surprised when I saw the colour of the fork oil. The left leg had white/clear water and the right one had white/salmon pink slush.

Another surprise were the springs. They didn't look like the standard suzuki ones. They were progressive but didn't look like the Hyperpro and they were in the forks with tighter coils at the bottom of the forks. Was that correct? Does anyone know what make they are? On the inside of the bottom forks there were Showa stickers.



I put the new springs and added oil up to the 120mm from the top of the forks. The difference in ride is very noticeable. Lest bouncy and more feel from the front. Now I started to feel that the rear of the bike jumps

The way I secured the bike was the rear paddock stand and ratchet straps over the roof beam and under the tope yoke




Like most of you said it would be easy job and it was

Many thanks for all the advise

Kam