Removing my front forks/rebuilding them

So dust seals... Do I just pull hard on the forks and it slides off? or a screw driver? or?

 

Yes, to get the old seals out, you grab hold of them with pliers, screwdrivers, whatever you like to get them out. The dust seals should come out fairly easily. The OIL seals will require a lot of force. You WILL destroy them getting them out. This is okay.

What you want to avoid is marring up the inside surfaces of the fork tubes. You can mangle the old seals all you want. But if you scar up the fork tubes, they won't seal properly when you put in your new oil seals, thus making everything pointless.

 

Chacal told me once I got the bottom bolt removed and the circlip/dust seals removed you just pull hard. and Tada they're apart you can just slide your seals off. Working on getting them back together tomorrow. Question I had though.... How do I know when they're at the right height before I bolt them back in for good? Do I measure or do they only come above the bolt x mm's or is it just kind of an eyeball it deal?

 

On my XJs, the height of the forks themselves are not adjustable. The springs will force the forks to their maximum length, countered by the weight of the load (bike, you, luggage, etc.). Replacement springs with greater tension or spacers inserted are the only way to adjust that. That's a whole other project.

Also, on my XJs, the height of the forks can be adjusted not by adjusting the forks themselves, but by changing how high they are in the triple tree. The stock arrangement is for the top of the fork (minus the cap) to be flush with the top of the upper clamp.

You obviously don't want to mount the forks LOWER than that, since that weakens the grip of the upper clamp and is likely to bend things.

However, if you have room, there's no reason you can't mount the forks HIGHER than that. That would bring the front end down a bit, if you want a little bit of rake to your bike.

One thing to watch for is clearance of the oil filter, exhaust headers, etc. just behind the wheel when you go over bumps. By raising the forks, you're reducing your ground clearance.

The other thing is that - from memory - on my bike raising the forks might bump them against the handlebars. Maybe not. I don't remember for sure. Just have a look, and keep the front end up in the air until you get it all put back together so you can adjust the forks back down if you bump things. I know that on my 750 there's no way this would be a problem, but on the 650, I'd have to look.

Hope that helps. Sorry for the late reply. Did you get your old seals out okay? Were you replacing the oil seals or just the dust covers at the top?