Fork seal replacement on 749s - DIY?
 

A mate of mine has discovered his 749s fork is leaking very badly (LH side) and with all the bike shops nearby busy as hell for the next 2 weeks I wondered if this was an item that could be done by a semi-competent mechanic (him) and a dim mate (me). Special tools? Manual? Help anyone?

You would need some tools especially a seal driver which is an outer and inner diameter cut in half to fit around the slider.

If you pop into WH smiths one of the current mags (performance bikes i think) has an article on this with photos. May help you

Mark

Ideally you will also need a tool to compress the sping and its spacer to allow you access to the the locknut that locks the fork cap to the damper rod

Just replaced my 999 left seal (showa) last Saturday there is a good rough guide on utube also worth downloading work shop manual :
http://www.duc.nu/manuals/download/fmd/md.php

as there is a slight difference between them

Have to 'make' 3 'special' tools

1 something to compress and hold spring down to expose lock nut for damping tube and rod - I used an exhaust bracket , two bolts and a luggage strap

2 something to protect the new seal as you put it on - i uesd a plastic freezer bag

3something to drive the new seal into it's seat - I used a 43mm plastic plumbing connector with a slot cut in it.

you need to raise the front off the ground I used a abba stand and a heavy duty ratchet strap from a beam in the garage as there is no hole for a headstock stand.

It took me about 2 hours and all went well, worth having a note pad to record how everyting goes or videoing on phone. Filled with 420 ml shell advance 7.5 fork oil (450 if dry empty) (only 200ml of old very dirty oil left- discarded it, the rest was all over the fairing front wheel and brakes !)

I had the same problem as you no one could do it for about 2 weeks.

PS Worth doing gentle landings on the higher wheelies :lol:

Give us a shout if you need help

Thanks for the pointers guys and the manual link. Will pass on the info and see if he's up to it.

Huge thanks to Phil-the-Drill. Watched the video, took your advice on the plumbing tool and did the job easy as pie in a couple of hours. Really huge thanks as your "confident words" enabled both of us to attack the task. We used a spanner (32mm?) to compress the spring/slider tube. Worked a treat.