FZR600R forks stripping, help needed!

[tstuna]

hi guys.

firstly i'll do the done thing and say "I'm new!" and hello to you all :-)

i own a 95 foxeye fzr600, my first road bike and its a hoot.

i have a blown fork seal, so i have decided to strip the forks down, clean them and put new oil in whilst i am doing the seals.

webbs in peterborough were kind enough to photocopy the exploded diagram from the workshop manual for me so i know what goes where, but i have now stumbled on a probem. i cant get the inner and outer stanchions to seperate so i can get to the seal and drain the remaining oil and clean them ! (i have only tried on one fork leg so far)

i took the forks off the bike, put the inner stanchion in a vice and un-screwed the large allen hean bolt in the bottom of the leg, as i presumed this would then allow me to seperate the leg parts. nope!

then i went to the top of the leg and un-screwed the spring retaining part. still no use! out came the spring, but the damping rod is still firmly in the leg.

then i remembered under the dust seal is a circlip. remove that, no change!

the damping rod moves freely up and down, as does the whole fork assembly. the problem seems to be that when i try to pull the two parts of the legs apart, something (on the damper rod??) only allows me to go as far as the fork seal.

sooo....

if anybody can tell me what i've missed, no matter how simple its most likely to be, that would be greatly appreciated :-)

Cheers

Dave

[fraggs]

If i remember correctly (maybe not) you have remove everything you need to now you need to use the fork stansion (shiney bit) as a slide hammer to remove the fork seal (slide them in opposite direction until the seal comes out).

the reason for this is on the bottom of the stansion is a bearing that will not pass the fork seal and will aid you in pulling it out.

hope this helps (if i am wrong i am sure someone will point this out an correct me)

[fraggs]

never could spell stanshion or is it stanshun anyway you get the idea

[one2dmax]

Yes, that is correct, as long as the bolt through the bottom is removed and the clip under the dust seal. All you have to do is push the inner fork tube into the fork lower then quickly yank it like you are pulling it out - much like a slide hammer as was previously mentioned. It may take a couple of yanks. If the bike is stable enough you can install the fork back in the tripple and then yank down on the lower.

Either way you will have to use a slide hammer tool to reinstall the "metal slide" which is what is holding you up right now. You can make an inexpensive one with a long section of thin wall PCV pipe (schedule 40 i believe).

Sean Morley