front fork rebuild

[rocketray]

what is a reasonable price to have the front fork seals redone?

[sandy]

About $120 for parts. 3-4 hours labor. I do them in my garage in less than 3 hours. Where do you live?

[rocketray]

I'm in Dallas Tx--I took it to the dealer in Rockwall for a State Inspection for the tag and my front brakes were not working well at all recently and as I hadn't bled the brake fluid ever thought that was the culprit so I told them to change it and fix a few add on lighting issues that had quit-fusing or minor wire stuff I reckoned-they called back at a $950 estimate saying the fork fluid had gotten into the brakes and made a mess....shame on me I guess

[Bighead]

Go get your bike and RUN!!!!
I don't know how fork fluid could make a magical jump out or the fork tubes and into the brake system. Two totally different systems.
Unless they are saying that fork fluid leaked and got onto the brake pads. And even at that Go get your Bike and RUN!!!!!!

[Valker]

Yep ^^^^^^What he said!

[Hook#3287]

I agree, get your bike outta there.

New brake pads are about $35 a set and take 15 min to swap.

If your calpers need rebuilding that's different, but that's not what was estimated.

I have no idea what a shop charges these days, never been in one in this century.

But even at $100.00 per hour for labor, front forks should be under $400.00 with parts.

[mark81]

Also if they are rebuilding forks brakes have to come apart so there shouldn't be any additional labor to replace pads just parts. But thats not how you make money in a flat rate shop

[Karen]

If you have friends locally with the tools, order the parts & do it yourself. They're both girlie jobs...

[Harryc]

They're both girlie jobs...

OK...I like Karen and we've never met. Lol .

[da prez]

Harryc , Karen doesn't live that far from you. Or get your butt in gear and get to IZ. One hell of a nice lady and a Veteran too boot.

                                                   da prez

[Attic Rat]

Ray If I wasn't so booked up I would help you out and get your bike all straighten out. My next opening isn't until June

[Jess from VA]

If your forks leak enough from the seals, the fluid that doesn't get blown off onto the timing cover (and everywhere else up front, while riding) will run down and get on your brake calipers.  It doesn't take a huge leak.  Mine leaked a little (on and off) for several years, and never got on my brakes (cause I wiped it off).

Like many here, I used the Seal Mate (the Seal Doctor is much better to use) and my leaks stopped entirely, for months and months at a time.... then I did them again.

That is a pretty terrible price.  I wouldn't let them do it.  I'd get a Seal Doctor, get the bike home and perform simple outpatient surgery myself and see if it doesn't stop.  I'd clean my front brakes thoroughly, and replace pads if I find them soaked with fork fluid.  If the leak continues, use the Seal Doctor again, and again.  

I think 90% or more of small fork leaks are just dirt and crud up in the seals, and remedied by the Seal Doctor.  Only if an actual chunk of your fork seal has come loose, will the leak be unrepairably chronic.

My intermittent fork leak, for over three years, never resulted an any significant loss of total fork fluid, and though I continued to use the seal cleaning tool as needed (and you lose a bit of fluid each cleaning), I could never detect any loss of fork function at all.  

https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Racing-00-121-Large-45mm/dp/B0068G164E

http://www.riskracing.com/pages/Seal_Doctor_Page.html

If they continue to be a problem, hook up with Big Bill Ferguson (Big BF) over in AZ (or Bob Smith/Attic Rat) for repair.  You'll have to pay them, but it won't be a thousand Turkish Lire.  

[davit]

This may be a bit of a thread sidestep, but for those of you who have done a complete fork rebuild what have you noticed in regards to improved front end performance?  I have to assume my 60,000 mile eighteen your old fork oil is getting a bit tired.

[Jess from VA]

Big BF fixed my long leaking forks (described above) this summer.  My PO had told me progressive springs were in there when I bought the bike, and Bill confirmed they were in there on teardown.  He did a meticulous job cleaning/rebuilding them and I asked him to under fill them by (just) enough fluid to be certain they would not be hard.  I have not leaked a drop since.  

I could not really tell any before-and-after difference riding the bike (other than no more leak).  I wanted to.

Now 10-12 years ago, soon after I got my first low mileage interstate, I took it to a metric dealer and had the progressive springs installed, and new fluid.  They were not (and didn't need) rebuilt.  For only about $650, the front forks got incredibly hard, to the point of jolting that felt like I was riding a bike with no fork suspension at all.  I hated it, and thought it must be the springs.  But of course it was not the springs, it was too much fluid (they used the 10wt fluid called for by Honda).  They would not go in them again without more money, and I didn't really want to let them have the bike again, so I just lived with it.  After about a year, it smoothed out some, and feels normal now, though I've never had any leak on that bike.

So from my perspective, if your forks are not really sloppy or too bouncy or divey on hard braking (and even good forks dive a bit on hard braking), I'd leave them alone.  Yes the fluid probably is a bit grungy, but if it's not broke........  

(Watching Bill work on my forks confirmed that that particular job was not one I would attempt myself, as I am not a trained or skilled wrench.)

However, I was prepared to remove my forks myself and take them to someone who knew what he was doing with a whole bag of OE parts, and he was only going to charge me $100 for the workbench rebuild (lead tech at a Honda dealer).  Then put them back on myself.  Then Big BF became available, which is always a good thing, for me.

[Bone]

60k miles have you considered checking the fork slider bushings ? They are probably ok.

The Service Manual explains the slider bushing wear. At 90k I changed the slider bushings, guide bushings, dust seals. One of the forks had a leak so I changed the parts along with the oil hoping to last me another 100k miles. The slider wear wasn't at the point to be changed but close.

I think the front suspension felt much better but after you get used to changes I don't remember the before feeling.

[Steve K (IA)]

If you have friends locally with the tools, order the parts & do it yourself. They're both girlie jobs...

Agreed.  My wife helped me do the rebuild of the forks on my I/S.  She said that when the Std. needs to be rebuilt, she says she will do it.

If you have any mechanical aptitude at all, you can do this yourself for under $100.00

[Hook#3287]

60k miles have you considered checking the fork slider bushings ? They are probably ok.

The Service Manual explains the slider bushing wear. At 90k I changed the slider bushings, guide bushings, dust seals. One of the forks had a leak so I changed the parts along with the oil hoping to last me another 100k miles. The slider wear wasn't at the point to be changed but close.

I think the front suspension felt much better but after you get used to changes I don't remember the before feeling.

I've rebuilt over 8 or 9 sets of front forks.  I think 3 were due to leaking, 3 to replace springs and the others just because the bike was new to me and I wanted new fluid.

Every time I've done it, I've replaced the seals and both bushings.  Why not?  I'm there and the parts cost is a lot less than having to do it again because a used part failed or was not used up.

[Brian]

Hey guys, no one mentioned the 9 inch long special socket that is needed. When I inquired about buying the Honda socket it was not available, I made one from the dimensions given. A search here should pull up the thread or maybe it was in the shoptalk section. The seal trick worked for a while but my leak never really stopped. The OEM seals on my 97 really needed replaced, they pulled off the tubes with hardly no resistance. New seals were a lot tighter. I installed Progressive springs all new seals, bushings and OEM fluid. When adding new fluid I left out about 1 ounce in each tube. No problem with the ride and handling riding two up.