Fork Seals

Those figures dont seem that bad tbh.About 5 years ago I had new seals in my Ducati 999 Ohlins .Took the forks in loose and the bill was nearly £80 back then.The guy fitted pattern seals as they lasted longer than the Ohlins ones.

Mmmm, took my ex 998 Ducati forks to have them resealed, twas my little baby and heaven forbid if they got marked.
Sure enough, Ducati Wolverhampton scratched them, denied it, bastards, wouldnt trust em with a wheel barrow.

So, today, I took the bull by the horns and did my own fork seals on the MV. Hate to take them to a dealer after my last episode.
Just dropped the bottoms out of the upper sleeves, fitted new seals, lubed the innards with oil. Job done in an afternoon.
Just have to fit the plastics.

Dont spose you want to give us a run through how you did it ?

Need to make a floor standing frame of sorts to fit over the top of the bike, or use a beam to hold up the front of the bike thus having the wheel off the ground.
I made a frame out of metal tube and used some ratchet straps to suspend the front of the bike. Strapped it under the lower fork yoke. Make sure the rear is well
supported on the paddock stand and strapped down with cable ties.
Remove the front mudguard/calipers/wheel. Unscrew the top cap on the forks. To avoid marking the anodising I lined the socket with insulating tape before using it.
Not sure how the Tuono cap is held to the piston rod, but on the MV it is held on by the inner adjusting hex nut on the cap and a lock nut on the underside.......
inside the damping spring. Bit of a **** to get at but I modified and old push bike spanner.
Once removed, tap the lower dust seal off the lower part of the fork tube, I used a plastic spoon handle to avoid marking the anodising on the fork leg.
Look up inside the fork tube where the dust seal is located and there is a retaining spring. It has to be removed. Tape the fork leg to avoid scratching it with the spring
when removing it.........A couple of light downward tugs with the lower fork leg and the leg is released with loads of oil everywhere and the inner seal and bushes.
Tip the fork upside down to drain excess oil. Open up the top bush with finger only pressure and remove it along with the lower bush and seals.
Check for any scratches on the chrome part of the leg, also make sure there is no debris in the upper fork tube.
I used insulating tape to cover the top part of the leg where the holes are and the top edge of the tube. Always start wrapping the tape from below the holes to the top of
the leg thus covering the edge of the tape as its wrapped around the tube. Oil the seals and the fork leg fit the new seals in reverse order, make sure the pressure seal is the right way round......
and bushes and shim. Fit the fork leg to the upper fork tube and hold in position with a bungee cord or suchlike.
Gonna need a plastic tube or equivalent about the size of the seal o/d and the fork diameter, split in half and use to push the pressure seal upward into its housing.
Fit the retaing spring and dust seal.
Have to check with the Tuono manual with oil capacities and type to fill the fork legs etc.

Phew, sounds difficult but it isnt.

Phew, sounds difficult but it isnt.


yeh right... i,ll read that again in the morn... cheers fella.

Cost me aboot the same last year fir mine.

A've got a few bikes and a'll do their's when required, but seein as ma T is special and it's got the useless ohlins original seals a thought a wid let the specialist dudes replace them with the updated seals.

these fella,s charge £120.
if you take em in off the bike.


http://www.kais-performance.com/default.htm

Which model tuono do you have? If it has Ohlins forks check out this website, it has a step by step procedure in overhaul. Bearing in mind
you dont have to do the full dismantle. Just the lower leg removal and reseal. Forget removing the damper assy from inside the leg, not necessary
unless there is a fault there too. www.af1 racing.com

Removed the rad guards off the bike this morning, twas a good job I did. The leaking oil from the forks turned the front of both rads into clogged up
mess of dust.dead flies and general crap. The oil cooler was the worst, must have reduced the cooling effect by 50% .
Definetly worth checking if you have rad guards fitted

Duly noted Mr Chips :thumbup

Hi Gloin, the forks on the MV Agusta wich I did are slightly different than the Ohlins Tuono forks. Best thing to do is go back to the af1 site
and there is a PDF workshop manual to download which explains in great detail how to go about the task. I couldnt get the video to run either.
As you rightly say, 1 hour to do that sort of job, nah. At the end of the day, its all down to money, so the quicker its done the more they make.

Just checked out the link too, those Ohlins look a bit more involved than the Marzzochi's off my MV. Spose thats why they are so damned expensive.
If the forks are unmarked Gloin, make sure you point that out to whoever does them. Nothin worse that finding damage they wont admit too!!

Aye, and good luck with that...

i had a bandit picked up by the AA, i even watched em strap it up, when it got delivered home, a bloody great scratch across the tank... when i saw it go on the truck, no straps were near the tank !!

turns out they had changed it to another truck...

did i get compensated ??

did i f*&^ck

Gloin said:

Yeah,not a mark on the forks mr chips,I`ll take decent photos befor the works done and if there`s a mark on them after it will be no payment and replacement at their expense :thumbup

Click to expand...

Get someone to go with you, point out to the repairers that the are no marks or scratches anywhere, shove his nose right up to them, and make him agree.
Dont get had like I did.

Who's the business thats tackling them, Certified Ohlins repairers I hope, cos the forks do look quite involved.