Replacing fork seals

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cushman eagle
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Re: Replacing fork seals

Post by cushman eagle »

Nails wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 10:05 pm
mayhem8 wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 6:58 pmI have never seen brake pads like this before. The brake pad material looks like brass.
Metallic brake pads can damage the disk, which is seriously pricey.
I did not mean I used metallic pads,do use sintered pads :hmm:
I will probably need disks next brake rebuild :thk: which I would guess to be at about 130,000 mi :corn:
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Nails
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Re: Replacing fork seals

Post by Nails »

I'm no market expert, but I haven't seen pads that "look like brass" either. Even if sintered, that sounds like a lot of metal to me.

I don't really see the point given that organic pads seem to offer superior performance for the kind of riding we do: everyday driving, commuting, and touring. They generate less heat, are quieter, and don’t put much stress on the brake rotors. Of course, some organic pads are better than others.
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Re: Replacing fork seals

Post by glvnthedream »

When reinstalling the forks onto the bike, does the retaining clip get put on when the fork is just below the air collar, and then it gets pushed into the air collar so the retaining clip holds the air collar in place??

Is there a trick to getting the air collar past the retaining clip?

Thanks in advance.


mayhem8 wrote: Sat Feb 11, 2023 7:58 pm I managed to get the forks off, pulled apart, and replaced the seals. I still need to put things all back together but had a few comments and observations while things are fresh in mind.

I should have taken the dust caps off the tops of the forks first. I pulled a fork out and the dust cap went flying somewhere and I've still not found it. Thinking it was no big deal because it's just a little piece of plastic. Yeah, they're like $7 each or more, depending on where you buy them. I know someone with a 3D printer and may just give him the one I have and see if he can print me out a set.

I hadn't realized that there was a piece that slid over the tops of the forks and was how you get air into the forks. I almost wish that they just had separate schrader valves on the top of each fork, but what is there does balance out the air in each side. Where they slide onto the fork tube, there are O-rings that seal them to the fork tube and after reading the manual a couple times, finally figured out that I had to grab and twist/pull the upper part of the fork tube to slide them out of this piece.

Also, there is a very thin metal clip that goes around the top of the fork that needs to be removed before you can slide the forks off the bike. I watched a few YouTubes on doing fork seals in general, but none of these YouTubes I found were specific to my bike.

Speaking of YouTubes, the ones I watched showed using a 1.5" piece of PVC pipe to push/seat the new seals. The fork tubes are just slightly too thick for the PVC to be able to slide over them. I had to cut the PVC pipe horizontally and spread it a bit using some heat to get that to work. One step that did seem worth it was to cut about 1/4" section out of one of the old seals and slide that on above the new seal to protect and push the new seal into place. This seemed to work well and the 1/4" gap allows you to easily pull the old seal back out, because it does go down into the outer fork tube a ways.

Lastly, when I was putting the allen bolts back in to the bottom of the fork with the recommended thread lock (i.e. Locktite), I threaded it in by hand finger tight and was surprised at how much I still had to tighten these before my torque wrench clicked at the recommended 14.5 ft lbs.
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