Fairly Easy Installation of All Balls Front Fork Seals

[Squirrel]

Some time ago, knowing that I needed to replace my front fork seals on my Valk, I bought the "All Balls" brand of seals and dust covers.  I finally got around to installing them the last couple of days.  After watching some Youtube videos and looking at my Clymer manual, which is pretty good by the way, I got started.  If you decide to tackle this yourself, just some friendly advice and take pictures of how the innards of the forks come apart.  Everything went pretty well until it came time to install the fork seals.  I was fortunate enough to have a friend lend me the install tool to do this job.



After installing everything on the fork, I proceeded to try to beat the seal into place using the tool.  I tried several times but the seal would not go it.  I probably spent a couple of hours verifying that I had everything in place correctly and trying to figure out why it would not go it place.  I guess the "All Balls" seals are slightly larger diameter than stock Honda seals.  What I found was if I turn the fork upside down and then push the fork onto the slider using the tool and the weight of my body and strength on my arms/hands, I was able to slide the seal into place, fairly easily.  I had put a very thin coating of moly grease on the seal and in the housing prior to installing the seal.  No damage was done to the dust cover at all during this procedure.  I used the same procedure for installing the dust covers as well.  I used a piece of wood on my chest for support, but a thick folded towel would have probably worked better and with let chance of the fork slipping off the wood and getting injured.



This procedure may be able to be used when installing other brands of fork seals as well.  I hope this helps those who decide to tackle this job themselves.

[Pappy!]

That's a pretty darned good idea....thanks!

[Jess from VA]

That looks like a pogo stick without the footpegs.  

[John Schmidt]

Yes, that works. At TJ's suggestion I ordered OEM parts for the forks in place of the difficult All Balls, result was one pop with the tool on each part and they were in place. Easier, no leaks, fits fine. 

[TJ]

 

[Flrider]

Last time I did forks I used all balls kit and had some minor leaking going on right after.
Grumpy also suggested to go the OEM route to avoid any issues with leaking and/or hard to install.

[Squirrel]

Last time I did forks I used all balls kit and had some minor leaking going on right after.
Grumpy also suggested to go the OEM route to avoid any issues with leaking and/or hard to install.

Jack, I think you had mentioned that you had a minor leak in one of yours, so we will see how mine work out.  Hopefully, no leaks!  All in all, I am pleased with the way they turned out.  I did cover the end of the tubes to keep from possibly cutting the seals when installing them and then oiled them up so they would slide onto the fork easier.  Next time I think I will go ahead and buy the OEM seals just for ease of installation.   

[tonybluegoat]

Here's a good video showing seal installation on a Valk fork. I found the discussion of cleaning up the forks to be particularly helpful.  I will be doing my seals soon. Thanks for the discussion on it. I won't use All Balls, sounded like a pain.  Anyone in Texas have a seal tool I can borrow when the time comes?  I would rather spend the money on gas driving to get it then spend $45 on Amazon for a tool I'll probably only need once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ssZXBHL8Z4