NC24 fork seals, old links not working

[Eben007]

Hi all, busy with fixing some things on my 24, the fork seals need doing, right one is very bad and leaking onto caliper, so I want to sort it out first thing before I ride again.

I have searched the threads and found about a million of them on 24 fork seal stuff, two of them have links, one for jacksons-lair and one for oldmanhonda but both don't seem to be working any longer, I could really use a how to as the parts fiche looks very busy..

I would also like to know if I absolutely have to dissasemble the whole thing (with the special 24mm hex tool) just to do seals and oil, as I remember doing some on a very basic dirt bike once that I could just pull the stanchion off after undoing the bottom bolt (no special tools required, just clip the circlip off and knock out the tube, do the seals and knock back in..)

Also I weight 80kg, would 15wt oil be ok? I highly doubt I will find uprated springs in my neck of the woods, and I will not be putting any air in, well maybe a smidge..

Hope somebody understands my ramblings, and thanks in advance!
Cheers

[Neosophist]

dont change fork oil weight, all that will do is mess up the rebound and create possible a dangerously handling bike.

They work well with air in but you must use genine fork seals.

[vfrman]

The ONLY way to adjust forks for your weight is to change the springs.

[Eben007]

Thanks guys, yeah, I thought so vfr, I've bought the seals, now really just after some tips with installing them, do I have to pull the entire fork apart to do them? I remember reading about some special tool I might need to make to loosen them?

[vfrman]

You should have to tear down the internals, but to change the seals you pretty much have to break them down. I'm not too familiar with the NC24 forks, but the later NC30 and NC35 forks you can take them apart with hand tools. A rattle gun makes getting the rod bolt out of the bottom easier.

Besides, if they are leaking, you are probably going to want to clean them up and get all the old oil out. To do that, disassembly is required.

[Neosophist]

You should have to tear down the internals, but to change the seals you pretty much have to break them down. I'm not too familiar with the NC24 forks, but the later NC30 and NC35 forks you can take them apart with hand tools. A rattle gun makes getting the rod bolt out of the bottom easier.

Besides, if they are leaking, you are probably going to want to clean them up and get all the old oil out. To do that, disassembly is required.

yep, plus youll want to check for worn internals and bushes too as there is no point rebuildng a set of faulty forks to fail sudenyl.

[Eben007]

Completely agree with that Neo, thanks really appreciate it.

[Eben007]

Going to try get this done today, so correct me if i'm wrong:

-Raise up front of bike, remove wheel and anything else connected to forks
-Undo top triple clamp after loosening top fork nuts
-Remove forks and drain oil out the top.
-Undo bottom bolts ( with modified hex tool I must make, as I read this all over)
-Pull forks apart(springs etc.) and clean
-Seperate tubes and stanchions (Do I need to knock them out or will they come out easy?)
-Remove ?circlip? holding seal in place, replace with new and put back clip
-Reassemble in reverse order
-Refill oil to specified levels (90mm from top with forks compressed all the way and NO springs fitted I believe)
-Lock up top nuts and tighten triples

Does this seem right? Sorry guys but I'ts really hard to find a good walkthrough on this, just little bits of info all over the place.
Thanks

[vfrman]

It might be easier to loosen the fork cap while the forks are still clamped into the triples. Its also easier to clean after you separate the tubes from the stanchions.

And most importantly, only disassemble one at a time. That way you won't mix parts and you can use the assembled fork if you forget how things go together.

[Eben007]

Thanks vfr, did them yesterday, took the whole day, but I did resparay the lowers as well, which took some time, they weren't really hard to do, the anti dive side was being a little biatch getting everything lined up right, but they felt amazing after the new oil and seals went in. I cleaned up every single part and flushed the tubes out with petrol and a lot of crud came out. The old oil looked like charcoal milkshake.

The old seals were knocked in with a flat screwdriver so they looked really bad, probably why they didn't hold up. That should wrap up the mechanical issues the bike had, now it's all cosmetics.

Oh and while I was waiting for paint to dry, I took apart the rear hub, the cush looked brand new and the bearings were all nice and tight, spun freely with no signs of wear, cleaned everything up, polished up the disc, and hit the hub with the same bronze I did the fork lowers with.

She's really starting to look good. You can see the reflection of the hub on the sprocket. (Rear wheel painted too in this pic)



The forks ( excuse the oil at the top triple, I wasn't done cleaning yet..)



Also did the disc inners while I was at it... masking these took a while