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How hard are fork seals to replace?

904 views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  jnymdnyt 
#1 ·
One of my fork seals are blown and I'm toying with the idea of swapping it out myself. I've always had my goto mechanic for this, but would be a shame to be able to do everything except replace seals.

My main concern is with buying new tools. If it can be done (safely) without the need for specialty tools, then I may just have at it.
 
#2 ·
Easy Peasy with a fork seal driver and an impact wrench. How much would you pay a mechanic to do fork seals? I bought my fork seal driver for £40 in 2015 but have several bikes and do all the work myself so was happy with the investment.

BTW, make sure to do both forks. Just because only one is leaking doesnt mean you can only do the one.
 
#3 ·
#5 ·
Apologies for not responding to this sooner, but the link Stu provided turned out to be a stepping stone towards a wealth of information to which I was completely ignorant on. Spent the last two days combing through the manual, YouTube, and everything else I could find on forks. Had no idea they were so complex.
 
#8 ·
Not hard at all. Might need a couple of special tools (for instance, my YZ takes a special wrench and socket for the fork caps and compression adjusters), but if you have a service manual and can look at pictures and use a torque wrench you're good to go.
 
#9 ·
If it's leaking from sitting for a while you might want to give Sealmate a shot. It worked on mine and I was amazed.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being easy and ten being hard I would give it a 7. It's better if you have a 3rd hand to put in the fork (special wrench) while you compress the spring.

Make sure you insert the fork seal in its proper orientation. Good Luck!
 
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