Fork seal leaking

[FJmonkey]

Monkey, if the damper rods are already out, drilling is FREE and doesn't require waiting on the postman
DavidR

I was offering a slightly cleaner and lighter look to leaving the AD units on the forks and plugging up the holes. Offering options while the subject is current. No skin off my nose with any direction a member chooses to improve their bike. He can still drill and choose to put the plates on later down the road... Simply options.....

[racerrad8]

No drilling required...

RPM Fork Valve

Randy - RPM

[soundmindryan]

 

No drilling required...

RPM Fork Valve

Randy - RPM

Randy YOU ROCK! If life were as simple as you make fork improvement, the world would be a better place. Like I said, You are the first on MY list of people I'm gonna send $ to, once she's back on the road. Save a valve kit for me. 

[racerrad8]

Randy YOU ROCK! If life were as simple as you make fork improvement, the world would be a better place. Like I said, You are the first on MY list of people I'm gonna send $ to, once she's back on the road. Save a valve kit for me. 

Will do, and thank you.

I suggest since you are there with the fork disassembled you should replace the bushings as well. You will be pulling them out once you remove the fork tube, all you have to do is pop the old ones off and the new ones on.

It will ensure the new seals will seal for the proper life. I am re-doing mine because when I rebuilt them last winter I was out of rebuild kits and one started leaking after no more than 1000 miles...

If you search "fork" at www.RPMracingCa.com you will find all of the parts you need.

Thanks again, Randy - RPM

[Arnie]

Not trying to be insulting, but.....

Make sure you've backed off the clamp bolts from both the bar and the top triple clamp.

Arnie

[SlowOldGuy]

"No drilling required?"

I must have missed this somewhere, but if you leave the stock components "as is" then how does the fork valve bypass the current rebound damping and anti-dive circuits? 

It doesn't seem to me that adding a valve on top of the damper rod is going to short circuit the crap going on at the bottom of the damper rod.  What am I missing (other than having a couple of sets of these valves in my hands to install)?  :-)

DavidR.

[Dan Filetti]

"No drilling required?"

I must have missed this somewhere, but if you leave the stock components "as is" then how does the fork valve bypass the current rebound damping and anti-dive circuits? 

It doesn't seem to me that adding a valve on top of the damper rod is going to short circuit the crap going on at the bottom of the damper rod.  What am I missing (other than having a couple of sets of these valves in my hands to install)?  :-)

DavidR.

I wondered exactly that too.

Dan

[ally]

me too, mine is an '86 and had planned to blank them.................

got the valves, slowly saving up for the rest

[soundmindryan]

I believe the RPM required 5w fork oil is too thin for the damper rod to make any effect on damping and that is all facilitated by the cartridge. 

[FJmonkey]

I believe the RPM required 5w fork oil is too thin for the damper rod to make any effect on damping and that is all facilitated by the cartridge. 

Having just installed a set, the instructions are to preset the dampener setting to the middle setting. Then with the rod cut off, forgetaboutit.... So I think some of the dampening is from the OEM parts, the balance from the cartridge. I am just a front tire and brake lever away from installing my 89 FJ/88 FZR front end... Can't wait....

[SlowOldGuy]

But if you're installing them with anti-dive, I would think the A/D circuit would need to be bypassed or otherwise deactivated.

Also, I would hope the valves rebound was completely independent of the damper rod rather than relying on it for some effect.

Not trying to be negative here, I WANT a better fork action!  

DavidR.

[racerrad8]

Nope, as mentioned the thin oil travels through the lower stock valving without any problem. The valve does all of the dampening and rebound internally but the orifice does need to be adjusted, if you have one, to the medium setting.

I tested them on my bike, A/D installed brake lines bypassed and on my wife's, fully functioning A/D and the function of the valves was the same. The valve does all the work before the A/D can come into play.

Randy - RPM

[fj11.5]

I believe the RPM required 5w fork oil is too thin for the damper rod to make any effect on damping and that is all facilitated by the cartridge. 

I believe the RPM required 5w fork oil is too thin for the damper rod to make any effect on damping and that is all facilitated by the cartridge. 

Having just installed a set, the instructions are to preset the dampener setting to the middle setting. Then with the rod cut off, forgetaboutit.... So I think some of the dampening is from the OEM parts, the balance from the cartridge. I am just a front tire and brake lever away from installing my 89 FJ/88 FZR front end... Can't wait....

mate im just a little green,, i was impressed when i swapped my 84 front for an 89 , you should be handling better than that again  , think i better save for these valves seem to be a must have item

[sovrin]

Hey guys, I finished up the project.  It was a little intimidating the first time into the forks since that is new territory for me.  And my only goal was the seals cause they leaked.  I want to upgrade some day.  I think someone had been into the forks before.  These forks are just in poor shape, lots of pitting as well as poor surfaces where the seal sets in. (even after cleaning them up).  The big disappointment was that when I removed the locating screws, only half came out but I didnt realize that.  Prev owner must have sheared them off and screwed the old "Half screw" back in over the other half.  So, when I used impact to loosen the large bottom bolt, the locating screw buggered up the bottom of dampening rod.  Didn't have the tools or fortitude to try to get the broken screws out, they are pretty small.  When I put it all together, I had to fight to make sure the notch in the bottom of the rod stayed straddled over the stub of the broken locating screw.  I don't even know it these forks are worth rebuilding in the future.  Oh, well, I guess I bought myself a little time.  Glad that is over with!

[soundmindryan]

Nice job. Thanks for the update. The '87 forks I took apart to use the upper tubes had the damping rod buggered up in the same way, even after I removed the locating screw first. I knew someone had been into them before as the tubes had "Forking by Frank" etched into the top tubes. I didn't have to use them since I used the original rods from my '89 forks. Once you get into the forks, you can see how simple they are. I was hesitant at first also, thinking there was some kind of rocket science voodoo inside them. Randy is right about the idea of once you have them apart, might as well install new bushings, as it adds NO further complexity to the job. Since I still don't have both my forks back together, I still may spring for the new bushings. There is a file in the "files" section that talks about shimming and dimpling the existing bushings. Anybody wanna chime in about success with that?