Playing with seals

 Bork, bork...

So, some time ago (during the Dusty Butt) the RHS fork seal on the WR started leaking.  I attempted to fix it my cleaning it out with a Seal Doctor but this wasn't successful.  So I bought some new seals and put them on the bench while I carried on giving the old seal more grief...

Old seal (dust seal removed)

But, I also started doing some research as I was a little bit nervous about giving this job a go myself - I've had to have a few fork seals done in the past and always left it to the pros.  But, I thought that it was time for me to do some learning.

This video was very helpful:

Last weekend the on the job learning began in earnest...

Well, so far so good.  Now to see what's inside...

A useful picture for later

Time to get rid of this one

Once I had things in pieces it was time to check the fork for damage.  The best way to do this is to rub the back of your thumb nail up and down the tube.  Even the smallest nicks will "grab" ya nail as you slide it over them.  And bingo, I found quite a nasty little sod.

As per the video, I attacked it with some very fine sandpaper.  And it took an age...

I ended up having to use a little bit of slightly more coarse sand piper before going back to the very fine stuff to polish it off.  I then got a second opinion from Dad and we pronounced it "good enuff".

Fast forward a week and it was time to put the new seals in and get everything back together.

The new dust seal went on first and then the fork seal itself.  Just like the video, I used some thin plastic to thread the seals over the tube without damaging them.  I also used a little bit of grease on the seal and some fork oil on the tube.

Next up was seating the seal and this required a new tool.

This dohickey is used to gently "whack" the seal into place and I really did have to use a little elbow grease to seat the seal - all the time worrying that I was going to damage the new seal.  But in the end it was in far enough to get the retaining clip in it's groove and we were well on the way to getting things back together.

Clean fork and new seals

Then it was time for some of this:

Apparently each leg takes about 630ml of oil so the other leg wasn't going to get fresh oil on this day.

The oil goes in while the spring is out and you have to work the dampening rod a few times to remove any air before completing the assemble.  The oil level is checked by measuring from the top of the tube down to the oil level (easier said than done) and the distance is supposed to be 105mm.

After wrangling the spring and fork cap on (one of those jobs that really needs three non-slip hands) to button things up.

And finally, reinstalled into the Mouse.

And now I just need to get some more oil so I can change the oil on the other side and test my work...