Fork seal replacement

[beemermyke]

Found some leakage on one of my forks yesterday and ordered new fork seals (R1150RS). Anyone have any words of wisdom for doing the job, in addition to what my Clymer book says? Also, the book instructs to add 470ml of BMW fork oil for my particular model bike. Is there a suitable type of fork oil I can buy locally? I want to replace the oil rather than re-use it, since I just turned 78,000 miles and there's never been any fork maintenance prior to now.

 

[tommcgee]

Changing fork seals isn't difficult. Usually, the hardest part is seating the retaining clip. Motion Pro makes a tool to do the job. This is the safe way, it's easy to damage new seals when you use makeshift tools. DAMHIK.

As to fork oil, from what I read, the indicated viscosity from brand to brand varies widely.

This is for bicycles, but the same holds true for motorcycle forks. (it was my first search hit.)

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=390797

You can change the ride quite a bit, merely by changing the weight of the oil.

 

[PGlaves]

You can change the ride quite a bit, merely by changing the weight of the oil.

But not much on Telelever equipped motorcycles because all the damping is in the strut (shock) and not in the fork tubes. The sole purpose of oil in the fork tubes is a bit of lubrication.

 

[MotorradMike]

Myke:

Here's a link to a step by step.

Warm up the top of the fork to help get the seal out, just hand hot with a hair dryer.

Not sure why Tom had trouble with the retainer.
IMO the only issues are with all the brake and axle fasteners. Make sure those are all put back correctly.

 

[pawork]

Mike -

I did this job last winter. A bit time-consuming but otherwise no big deal. Seal puller (used carefully) was helpful. Glad to loan you mine if you don't have one.

 

[beemermyke]

Thanks for the feedback, gents. Those manuals usually have a hole or two in them but I can always count on this forum for some good info. Great article, Mike. I'll use that when I get my parts in. Thanks for the offer on the seal puller Pawork, if I have any trouble I can probably grab it from the local bike shop very close to my house. This would be the 2nd time you came to my rescue, I appreciate that! The cool thing about doing this job is I got to put the bike up on my new (used) lift today. It's always fun to have a new tool when you do stuff like this. If you ever need it...

 

[tommcgee]

Not sure why Tom had trouble with the retainer.

I've done a few, but not his model bike.

 

[Jade]

When I purchased my 04 R1150RT in June it had just had the fork seals replaced. Within a month one was leaking again and I ended up replacing it. Practically one of the simplest jobs I've ever done, but the reason it blew out was obvious. The service guy that did the replacement (Not a dealer, but a shop with a good reputation) failed to open the bleed screw at the top of the tube as per instructions. The air pressure ends up being too high and (in my case) on a warm day, it had to let go. I couldn't easily find 7.5 wt fork oil locally, so I used 10 wt, which appears to be what others have done, as well. It's been good and tight ever since.

 

[beemermyke]

I ordered the fork seals from my regular dealer a week ago today and still haven't gotten them yet. I called to check because they told me they'd have to order them. Found out today that they had to order it from Germany and I'm looking at another 7 days! Seems like fork seals would be fairly common and someone stateside would have a set.

 

[Jade]

For those who are also dealing with this, or for future reference, I got mine online from Max BMW. They were here in 4 days.

 

[bikerfish1100]

don't recall, but i think i got mine from Cycle Gear. kind of a generic item, ya know?

 

[beemermyke]

Thanks Jade, I'll check with MAX (or Bob's) and see if they have it in stock, then I'll see if it's not too late to cancel my order. Yeah Bikerfish, I was thinking it was probably something generic since they're Showa forks and all... I guess I should have looked into it a bit more. I like to give my dealer business when I can, but this is a bit much for what I assume would be a common and easily obtainable part. Oh well, at least I've got the cage.

 

[JimMoore]

Oh well, at least I've got the cage.

Whatever else, that statement is ample evidence that a man needs more than one motorcycle. I mean, really.

 

[jeff488]

One thing I learned from experience is to make sure the seal is in right side up. It will leak a lot if put in wrong.

The up side is that one attains proficiency from practicing that bit of maintenance.

 

[beemermyke]

I called Bob's BMW on Monday and they said that they'd back ordered about 10 sets of seals, then he says "let me see if I've got anything here." Sure enough, he had a set and I got the parts in yesterday. Using a combination of the book itself and tips from MotorradMike, I had the new seals installed in no time. I used a cotter key puller to carefully extract the old seals, and used the same seals (as Mike suggested) to aid in installing the new. total time? Maybe an hour on both. Hardest part was all the brake lines as Mike described.