Friday 30 December 2016

How to change the fork oil seals on a nineties CB250

This is bad, mmmkay.
Remove the stuff that is in the way. Also this is much easier if you have a centre stand, if you find you own a bike that doesn't have a centre stand you may wish to re-evaluate the life choices that led you to these circumstances. Do you find everything difficult? Is life really hard in general? Do other people seem to be having an easier time? Maybe it's all your fault.
Away with you, things in the way!
Undo the pinch bolts in the yokes and slide the stanchion downwards. Then do the bottom bolt back up again, undo the top nut in the stanchion just a crack, and then undo the yoke and remove the fork.
Undo this. Be careful, the spring(s) inside will pop out and launch the nut out of the way. Such suspense, very sproing, wow. With the nut out the way remove the spring(s) and spacers and whatever, then empty the old oil into a container. You can pump the fork to make this a little quicker.

With the oil emptied out, put the springs and stuff back in and put the nut back on. Yes, it's difficult. Yes it makes your hand hurt, I know. With it back together there will hopefully be enough grip to stop the innards turning and you can undo the bolt at the bottom of the fork. A vice is very useful for this.
Here you can see the "damper rod" which is what we wanted to stop spinning. As these forks are cheap/shit there are no real bushes in here, so the inside was allowed to separate from the outside no bother. With better forks you will have to bang the seals out before the fork will separate because the bush is underneath the seal, just keep trying to pull it to bits and eventually they will come out.
Now we have to use a seal remover (or a screwdriver if you're a moron) to pluck the seals out. No magic here, just lever them out (after you've removed the clip!). With that done, clean it out, lube it up (I used a bit of the old fork oil), remember to put the washer back in (!) and press the new seal in. I put the socket on the ground and heaved away on the fork leg, do whatever works. Then put the clip back in, press the dust seal back in, put the stanchion back in, do the bolt up, take the nut off, fill with oil, put nut back on, put forks back, put stuff back that was in the way and you're done!

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