When is it time to recondition the front shocks?

I have a question. How do you know you need to replace the seals on your forks? Mine hold the air pressure just fine, but have a bit of fluid near the dust seals. I have a XJ750RJ seca. I just swaped my forks from my parts bike, because my stock ones were very rusty. I have yet to bleed the brake and anti dive system. The shocks feel mushy and softer than my stock ones. Will this go away once I bleed the system?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

Unfortunately, these things tend to get worse over time. Once a seal develops a leak pathway, the grinding action of the fork tube against tends to rapidly deteriorate it.

It may help some, assuming the anti-dive system is actually working, which is the forks haven't ever been rebuilt, it is somewhat doubtful that they are after 25+ years of use.

 

If you are getting any fork oil passed the seals they are not doing their job & it is only a matter of time before they fail completely.

 

dang, I was hoping to hear magical words from the wizard. LOL

Well. I guess I should start looking for a set of seals and figuring out how to make that tool the haynes book tells you to make. It looks a bit complicated. But I will give it my best shot. I sure don't want to put my old shocks back on in the meantime, but I guess I will have to.

 

Get your fork seals from chacal. Excellent service and I never fail to learn something from him.

And what tool are you talking about? The one to get the seals out? I usually just use the end of a claw hammer with a good amount of cloth wrapped around it so I don't scratch up the inside of the fork.

 

Do you mean this tool.?

 

Huh... What does that tool do? The only forks I've actually taken apart were the forks off my XS400 and I didn't use a tool like that.

 

It holds the damper rod while you undo the allen screw at the bottom of the fork leg.

 

YES WIZARD!! that tool. Thanks for the tip. I'm waiting on chacal for a response. I got a big list of parts but I only need or want a seal KIT, but I think I will have to buy each part individualy or as pairs. I think I might just need the oil seal and dust seal kit and the o rings.

Thank you guys for your help. Now I'm stuck without riding for a while. Oh well I hope to at least get the bike road worthy by spring.

 

Are you starting on this right away? Let me know how difficult it was. Take pictures. I'll end up doing this myself soon enough and I have the same bike.

 

I agree. I'll need to be doing this soon or at least eventually too! So pics, step by step instructions, ect ect. Let us know how ya did it and what your difficulties were and all that jazz. I'm sure there are tons of people who would love to learn

 

I'll have my son snap away as I work on them. I'm talking with chacal right now to make sure I get all the basics to swap the seals. It looks fairly easy. But you know how that goes. There is always the element of the unforseen. LOL I think I will do it within the next two weeks, if I get my parts in time.

 

Not sure if you will get as lucky as I did but I bought another set of front forks from a salvage yard in Colorado, he goes by partsguyz on ebay. You can find the toll free number on one of his listings. He sent me a set of front forks with the anti-dive for $125.00 and from what I can tell they have absolutely no leaks and are in very good condition.

I might have just got lucky though......

 

Well I just received my order yesterday and I will have the assurance that my seals will be brand new, and will have the experience of having done them myself. I also spent less than that for an array of new seals and parts.

The experience is invaluable to me. But thanks for the tip 83Rider.

As soon as it starts to get into the 30's I'll start my repairs.