1981 XJ650 fork seals

Kroil is not sold "retail" they only sell direct.

The Harbor Freight deal is only through Harbor Freight; or you could get it directly from Kano Labs (and pay the shipping.)

And yes, it makes that much of a difference. I thought the same thing you did; and only tried Kroil because I was getting desperate when nothing else was working, for like 5 months or better.

Kroil was the only one that worked.

 

crazy, ill give it a shot. thanks

 

Sounds like yours is worse than man was. But I soaked it in WD40 and smacked it a bunch of times with a hammer. Funny thing was I was smacking the left side, and the right side flew out. Good thing nobody was there for the top cap to hit. A little more smacking (with a socket acting as a punch) the left side came out. I take it you've smacked it enough times?

What about heat? When I used to work on boats, we used Kroil all the time and we also applied a little blow torch heat to really stubborn stuck fasteners

 

I personally would not heat the upper end of my fork tubes. Think it would be best to use the Kroil and let that do the work. Also be extremely careful beating on anything with a spring under it. Be sure to have safety glasses on when you work on something like this.

 

I've smacked it the point of actually getting all the rust off the top of the bolt. Gonna order some kroil now

 

Took the leg in question up to the shop this morning. Hit it with some heat(air valve removed) and it popped right out

 

i just did my seals last night
that top part in the picture was easy for me. first motorcycle but I'm a car mechanic and before that a bicycle mechanic so experience helped me.

TIGHTEN THE CLAMP. Yank her down to full torque spec and go even farther if u have to. use a big flat punch and ram that top piece with a dead blow hammer.
it should go in. And the pressure from the clamp will hold the piece in there for 5 - 10 seconds depending on your torque.

quickly release the cir clip. U got plenty of room and no need to have a friend help u! and i find 5 seconds plenty of time as well. if not, try again. won't hurt.

Then you release the clamp bolt slowly and it'll spring out.


BUT BEFORE YOU RELEASE THE TOP, undo the bottem bolt.
The spring pressurizing the system helps keep the internals in place.
Impact gun it if you have one. And the bolt should come off nicely. Oil will come out, be warned.

Otherwise, if you do it as the hayes manual said, and undo the top first........ you run into hell trying to build a tool which they suggested in order to keep the internals from spinning as you loosen the bottem bolt
\

 

This should help.

http://xj650.blogspot.ca/2009/01/how-to-clean-enrichment-circuit-well_04.html

 

Just a quick word of caution here in regard to hammering on the internal cap plugs:

The inside bore of the fork tube is TAPERED just below where the cap fits, they're NOT just a simple "tube." If you hammer the cap in too far beyond what's necessary to pop the circlip out, you can end up wedging the cap in the top of the tube.

It's also not necessary to build a special tool for getting the forks apart. You need a spark plug socket with a 19mm hex cast on its base; flip it over and add every extension in your toolbox and you have a damper rod holding tool. (This doesn't apply to the later bikes that use a 22mm hex.)

 

YES! Sorry i didn't point that out. If your hammer have become good friends with your hands over the past few years, you should notice the ledge easily. Don't try to force the cap any farther down. gives u plenty of room to play with.

Thanks for pointing that out.

And THANKYOU for the tip on the 19mm. I couldn't figure it out for the love of god and the hayes manual doesn't say nor do I have anything really that I could use to try without risking loosing it in the fork and leaving me royally f**ked. Which lead me to some boiling braincells and realizing I can just slam the cap back on the compress the springs in there to help hold the rod in place

good to know it's a 19mm for the future.

 

I'm bringing back an old thread if that's alright. I'm sitting with this issue at the moment. The cap on my fork is stuck. When I took it apart today, the cap was actually a millimetre or two below the lock ring, so I had no trouble getting the lock ring out. The cap hasn't budged with all my efforts of getting it out. I'm worried it's too deep and is now wedged stuck as some people warned could happen. It's also pretty rusty. It's soaking overnight in some rust remover to see if that helps. Anyone have any other suggestions? How do I get it out if it's wedged too deep?

 

Hydraulic pressure does wonders.

Warning: This will be messy.

Thoroughly soak the plug with a good penetrating oil (NOT WD-40). Repeat this for a few days.

Remove any corrosion from the inside of the upper fork tube with 400 grit wet-and-dry

Lay down a sheet of 4mil plastic to protect the ground, or the floor of your garage.

Get a scissor jack.

Park your car just far enough from the wall of your garage (or some other secure object) that you can set the fork leg and the scissor jack between them, with the base of the jack resting against the tire, and the top against the fork leg.

Extend the jack, therby compressing the fork leg.

The plug will pop out, along with the oil seals.

If the oil seals pop out on their own then you will need to drill and tap a hole in the plug so it can be extracted using a slide hammer.

 

No such luck, It compresses all the way and still no 'pop'. It's sat two nights over now with penetrating oil and it doesn't seem to budge. I managed to get one of them out, but the other is really in there. Pictures attached are of the one that I got out, as you can see is quite pitted, the other is the one that is still stuck in there.

 

And here is the still stuck one.

 

In theory I could just leave it in there and not worry about changing the 'o-ring' right? The point of the cap is to not let fork oil out the top, and if I can't get it out, then oil won't get out either. Right? I'm still able to change the seals and all the other parts, just not the 'o-ring' on the cap.

Other side to that is, I've poured a fair amount of penetrating oil in there by now, I'm not too sure how I'd flush that out and get it nice and clean inside, without getting the damn cap off. I've used all the man power and various methods I'm capable of.

 

You won't be able to inspect the internal bushings, or flush all of the old oil and grit out, and it will be much more difficult to get the oil seals out with the spring in place.

Do you have a helper that can depress the cap while you use a strip of 400 grit wet-and-dry to clean the corrrosion from the lip of the fork tube?

If the cap is still not coming out after that you can use an immobile object, and your car, to put a little more force to it without damaging anything.

1. Lay down a sheet of plastic to catch the oily mess that should occur during the process.

2. get a scissor jack, or a bottle jack that is valved to wotk whild laying on its side.

3. Park yor car close enought to the immovable object (garage wall, or a tree, or similar) that you can lay the fork leg down against the with room for the jack between it and the car tire.

4. Extend the jack.

5. As the fork compresses the increased hydraulic pressure should pop the fork cap out (this happens most of the time). If the fork seals pop out before the cap does, then you will have to drill and tap the fork cap so that it can be removed using a slide hammer.

 

I already have the oil seal out. I think the cap is already pressed as far in as it goes, which is why it is so stuck. When I took the fork off the other day, I didn't need to depress the caps to get the 'C-clips' out at all. The cap is a millimetre or two bellow where the 'c-clip' is supposed to sit, so I think it is wedged down into the slightly tapered bit of the fork tube.

 

I appreciate the tips though, I don't want to give up on it! I'll leave it again over night with more penetrating oil, and try more pressure tomorrow!

 

Am I seeing the pic wrong? It looks like the cap already has a threaded hole in the middle that would allow the use of a slide hammer or a home made puller of sorts. Also, what about the heat suggested in this post earlier, has that been tried? Using something like a heat gun (not a flame) to expand the fork tube should help.

 

Yea, Yesterday I attached a tie down straps to the cap, and another strap to the fork tube. I tightened the straps around a tree and the bottom of a tick fence, ended up ruining the fence rather than pull the cap out... Also tried heat, although with a flame as I don't have a heat gun. Is there a difference if I do it with a heat gun?