Monday, August 03, 2009

Fork Seal Change on a Gold Wing

While repairing an uncooperative starter, I noticed fork oil running down the right side of the front suspension. Closer inspection revealed soaked brake pads and coated wheel and undercarriage on the right side.

I decided to get an estimate at the local Honda shop. Four hundred plus parts. Naturally I opted for the most difficult choice and bought the new seals and dust covers, optimistically assuming nothing else would need repair once I opened up the job.

The first step I recommend is to find a truck stop or industrial waste site and collect about 5 gallons of used petroleum products and if possible add to this a few pounds or pureed rotten moose guts. Spread this mixture liberally over the garage floor, walls, and any tools and benches you plan to use to mask the smell and roughly match the volume of the goo you will "drain" from the forks.

Next spend a few hours reading on the internet how easy it is to swap out a set of seals in 30 minutes to two hours tops. Don't forget to study the "shop manual" for useless information that has nothing to do with the actual work you are about to tackle. After wasting half a day looking for time saving shortcuts, give up and actually start taking the bike apart.

It turns out the geniuses at Honda use two bolts on the left brake caliper and two on the right to hold said devices to the forks. When you try to remove them you find two bolts take a 13 mm socket, one a hex wrench, and one a #40 Torx socket. Yes, three different fasteners to hold what amounts to the same component to the same structure, just on the opposite side.

Removing the front half of the fender and the front wheel is pretty straighforward. Unless you count the 30 or so fasteners you have to take off to get the brakes out of the way. It's also important to consult a higher power before trying to fish the back part of the fender out of the tangle of brake lines and sytem of tabs and slots designed to test the patience of Job.

Once all the various contraptions that are stuck to the fork legs are removed the job gets a little simpler. There are still a couple of tricks up Honda's sleeve however. The dash has to be removed to access the top caps. This of course means dealing with the wire connector which cannot be pulled apart no matter how many times you have done it before. (Every time I take it apart I swear I will file off the little catch that causes the problem).

Another procedure calls for loosening the hex bolt in the bottom of each leg. Many people suggest using an air impact wrench for this. I opted for the low tech method. Using a standard hex wrench, I found a giant Crescent wrench and fitted the "L" part into the jaws and broke loose the stubborn bolt. This is also the time when random spurts of stinky black oil will begin to fly out out in all directions without warning or deference to physics.

Speaking of oversize tools, the top caps can not be loosened without resorting to extra leverage. After straining with a ratchet wrench and inventing a few new words, I decided to gain an advantage by using my torque wrench with the long handle. As I was holding the right handlebar with my belly and pulling the wrench for all I was worth it occurred to me it might be interesting to see how much torque it took to break this particular bolt loose. Just as my eyes started to focus on the tiny numbers the bolt gave way. I didn't get the reading but I did put the torque wrench on the floor where I could trip over it a few minutes later.

One more obstacle remained before I could actually remove the right fork and spill more oil on the floor. The upper pinch bolt came loose pretty easily. The lower one is semi-hidden up under the front body work and of course coated with a thick mixture of oil and dirt. After loosening the lower pinch bolt I soon found the fork tube was still stuck fast and no amount of cursing would cause it to budge. I re-loosened the upper pinch bolt and began hammering on the top of the fork cap with a big hammer and a half inch socket extension. For some reason I came to my senses temporarily and re-examined the lower pinch bolt. This time I noticed the second bolt immediately above the lower one I had already loosened. A couple of turns and the leg came sliding out, dripping filthy smelly oil all the way to the work bench where it puked another puddle of grayish ooze before I had time to react.

Now I have mentioned several times the odor associated with the used fork oil. It is severe. Think of what it might be like to sniff a vagrant's sweat sock which has been soaked in kimchi, and buried under a damp chicken coop for about three years. Then double the effect.

Once the dismantling is complete, the rest of the job is anticlimactic. At least I hope so. I haven't started putting it together yet. And I still have the left side to do.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Seems to me the $400 would have been good money spent.

But not nearly as good reading.

Thanks
Steve Cordray
Tulsa

Anonymous said...

Well done!............................................................

Anonymous said...

No pains, no gains..................................................................