Changed my fork seals on Saturday. Very easy to do without a complete disassembly.
Jack up the front end
Remove front wheel
Remove speedo cable
Remove brake line
Release fork bolts from bottom of fork lower with Hex wrench (HERE COMES THE OIL! Have your catch pan ready!)
Gently pump fork lowers + fender up and down a few times to clear out the oil
Remove fork lowers (Uppers will continue to drip as you do the seal replacement!)
Remove old fork seals
Reinstall new fork seals
Reinstall fork lowers
Reinstall fork bolts after replacing or annealing copper crush washers (torque to 15#)
Replace wheel (torque pinch bolts to 15#, front first, gap to rear)
Replace speedo cable
Replace brake line (good time to rebleed brakes to remove air)
Loosen top triple's pinch bolts
Remove fork caps ONE SIDE ONLY (carefully!)
You may have to remove your bars for this stepFill with 150ml of ATF or fork oil of your choice
Replace cap to snug and proceed to other side
Re-torque top triple pinch bolts
Replace bars if required
Double check torque for all fasteners
Bounce forks up and down a bunch to get the oil flowing and to check for leaks. Now is a good time to see that your copper washers didn't seal and you're leaking fork oil rather than 10K down the road!
Done!
Changes noted: ATF will be my go-to fork oil from now on. Much faster on the quick small bumps we have around here (lots of road repairs/patches and potholes). Previously used 10W fork oil.
I changed the nuts on the axle pinch bolts to Nylocks + reg washer rather than the spring washers. When I was loosening them they were
alarmingly loose. Those split spring washers were quite tired and NOT doing their job.
