| Author | Message | ||
     7873jake |
Been putting off the task of rebuilding the forks while oil puddled under the primary side fork leg. Rode other bikes in the garage and found other things to do until I could no longer avoid it and found myself missing the Uly. I ordered up the full kit of bits from American Sport Bike and added a fork seal driver to the mix just for good measure. It took me as long to remove the aux PIAA lights, jack up the bike off of the shop floor and remove the front fender and wheel as it did to rebuild both fork legs. I would agree that it is a good idea to work it against the manual. It isn't necessary if you've done forks before on a modern bike but I rarely own a bike without a manual so I figured I'd use it. No special tools were necessary. I was able to compress the fork enough by hand to get the 17mm open end wrench on the cartridge and get the unit apart with sockets. You can rig a strap to compress the fork leg or buy the tool but I found a strong grip and the right position were all that was required to work the fork. I will add to this process that I found it INVALUABLE to set up the trusty 20 year old B&D Workmate, wrap the fork leg in towel(s) and tighten the noose around the neck of the fork leg. Once the squirrel-y expensive tube was captive, I was able to loosen the bits at the top of the fork leg and get the whole assy open. I pulled the units apart from there and cleaned the springs, pumped the cartridge several times to expel the old fluid and left the unit hanging horizontally off of the edge of the bench top to drip/drain in to the catch pan. I then cleaned the bores of the slider and outer leg with fresh fork oil and a clean rag. I used Maxima 10w and 15w and mixed 4oz each in the Ratio Rite to make the first batch of 8oz of fork oil that the manual requires and poured it in to the fork slider. (You don't need a RR to mix the oil but it was handy and available.) After pumping the fresh oil in to the cartridge by hand, as described in the manual, I added another 4oz of ea. weight to make the next 8oz , as spec'd by the manual. I poured it in, pumped the cartridge again for good measure and then proceeded with measuring the 192mm measurement as described in the manual. I will give credit to the BadWeB'er who suggested using a marked zip tie as a dip stick for the 192mm measurement. That was priceless. I wish I could recall who that was in order to give them credit. I used a turkey baster with vinyl tubing to siphon off the excess oil to get the level back down to 192mm. Once the oil level was set, I reassembled the fork with fresh seals, bushings and o-rings and put it all back together. Here is where the Motion Pro fork seal driver I bought from American Sport Bike was worth every penny. Not only was it effective for setting the larger bushing in the fork as well as setting the inner seal and dust seal, it also makes a great desk trinket. It sits next to my Triumph unit twin hub puller and I fiddle with it when I have to endure painfully needless conference calls. In all, I was able to rebuild both legs in under an hour. IIRC, the whole process took about 2-2.5 hrs from beginning to end. As I said before, aside from the fork seal driver, no special tools were necessary. Frankly, I was surprised at how easy the whole thing was. There is a youtube video of a guy rebuilding his Uly forks that is worth a look. A lot of the work goes on out of camera range but there are critical high points he hits that make it worth watching. --Jake | ||
| Reepicheep |
Good info, thanks Jake! I don't know if it would work on Uly forks, but when I do my dirt bike forks I tape tubing to a rod to stick down the fork tube, with a "stop" on the top so the tube is exactly Xmm down the tube, then just hook a syringe to the other end of the tube and slowly pull until its sucking air. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Nice write up on the process. I've changed the oil in my forks 3 (actually 3.5) times now, and replaced the seals 1.5 times. I had to replace the brake side seal ~6 months after replacing it the first time. Turned out I had a TINY nick in the right fork leg with some raised metal around it (BARELY detectable with a fingernail) that cut the new seal. My bushings still looked pristine at 40k miles so I'm still running the originals. I also invested in the fork seal driver; it's a nice tool. After doing it the hard way a couple of times I went a further step and bought a nice fork compression tool. Having that tool makes the reassembly process much less stressful. | ||
| Tootal |
7873jake , I saw the video you were speaking of and you're right, not a good video but definitely good info. I've never done it his way but next time I have to do it I'm going to watch it again. Oh, you're welcome for the dipstick!  | ||
| 7873jake |
The ~12wt fork oil is a nice change from the OEM fill. The front end feels mucho mejor with fresh juice and parts. Reep, I added that tidbit to my notes for the next time. I had a Honda Fit with an ATF fill/dipstick buried so deep in the engine bay, I had to use a similar method for servicing that one with the funnel/hose combo. Sad part--it was hanging about 5 feet from me the whole time I was doing this. Hugh, the whole time I'm putting the new seals in, I'm wondering just when the tiny nick in the seal will surface despite wrapping a little PTFE tape around the sharp edges of the slide bushing slot on the slider leg and using a touch light enough to catch mouse farts with. Thanks for giving me one more reason to not sleep.  Tootal, I owe you for the zip tie trick. I'm guessing if I wrote a letter of thanks on fresh 10 dollar bills, you'd probably find a way to graciously accept it. I just need to know if it should be a four or five page letter. Other notes: I have, in the past, pondered the notion of adjusting the forks up/down in the triple clamp. Seeing how the stopper ring fits in to the upper clamp sorta answered that one for me. I realize I could probably mess with the adjustment and not fully seat the ring but felt like the guys who attended engineering class on the days that I skipped and do this for a livin' proly knew better and so I went with their plan instead of mine and fully inserted the fork. One HUGE caveat for those planning this process: when you are done building both legs, don't place the legs side by side with the bottoms of the forks on the same surface. I did this and noticed that the two forks weren't the same length. After I said words that required biting down on bar soap for 3 minutes, I measured them from the preload adjuster and fork cap down to the upper face of the slider leg where the fender mounts and found them to be the same. Point of the ramble: the lower section of the slider legs are not the same length because of the axle area. The portion of the slider legs where the axle slides/screws in are different dimensions and so when you stand them up side-by-side, the forks aren't the same length. --Jake | ||
| Rayycc1 |
Awesome info...Thanks guys! |
