Front Fork Seal

I noticed while riding my Kawasaki Vulcan 800 the right fork tube has
a film of oil on it. How difficult is it to change the fork tube
oil/seal on a Kaw Vulcan 800.

Thanks
Andre

 

It can be a right sod. In theory, you just undo the screw or allen bolt
at the bottom of the fork leg and it comes apart. In practice, it
swivels round with the damper rod inside the leg, or you chew it up,
or.....

Take out the leg - that's easy - and give it to a dealer. With the
proper tools (ie: an air gun to undo the thing, and a proper fork seal
re-seating tool) it's a 20-minute job and therefore cheap.

 

If you don't have the tools, take it to a bike shop, it'll save you
time and money in the long run! I ended up spending a few hours
making up a tool to stop the damper rod from turning inside the fork.
I didn't have the correct seal drivers to fit the seals properly and
as it turns out, one of the seals didn't seat, so I had to completely
disasseble and take to a dealer anyway! In hindsight, I should have
done this first.

 

Broomstick usually works.

Chunk of 1 1/2" PVC works for 39mm; ymmv.

 

Thanks what I ended up using. Seals looked great, until I tried
fitting one of the retaining circlips...

 

And then you found it wasn't seated deep enough, right?

 

yep!

 

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt )