[kerrycorcoran]

07' CRF450r

Am planning on replacing my seals.

Am planning to purchase the following:

1. Fork Seal Bullet
2. Fork Seal Driver

Can someone tell me the diameter of the stock Showa forks?

Thanks,
Kerry

[jmattor]

47mm if I remember correctly.

[kerrycorcoran]

anybody got a confirmation on the size?

[Asmith]

jmattor is correct at 47mm.

The fork seal driver will fit both 47 and 48mm forks.

The Bullet is not necessary.

[jmattor]

Thanks for the confirmation AS....I have a slight case of CRS, but sometimes a memory comes alive.

For what it's worth, I bought the Race Tech seal driver from Ken here at CRF's Only - it covers 47-48mm and works on my Hondas and my daughter's Yamaha.

kerrycorcoran, if you are looking at Motion Pro tools, their driver is 46-47mm.

Never used a bullet before....$10 buys a lot of baggies.

[kerrycorcoran]

Thanks for the information, guys!

Well order my seals and as soon as they get here I'll tackle this job. Hopefully I''ll be able to do this without destroying anything.

[124]

I attempted my first fork job this past weekend. I consider myself capable so I had no issues with doing this job myself. There are a few things to watch out for.

The outer chamber (fork legs) are relatively easy to change without incident. Follow the instructions here from Smash and the Honda manual.

The inner chamber gets a bit complicated. You must add a certain amount of fluid, measure, then bleed amount a certain amount of fluid (195 and 17 respectively, I recall) and then reassemble. Honda recommends replacing the ENTIRE inner chamber and damper asm ($300) if there are issues bleeding the inner chamber.

This is where my story begins. I couldn't get the inner to bleed. In fact, all 195ml of the expensive fork oil come pouring out everytime I try to bleed the inner system. I called my suspension guy (in a panic) and explained I was doing my forks myself and I was bringing him an already disassembled assembly and he needed to fix it. I love it when people do that to me...

Needless to say, Honda does not explain that the inner chamber won't bleed when the "Inner Chamber Seal" goes bad. Nor do they explain how to change that seal. This is how they collect the $300 from newbies thinking they jacked something up. I was assured from JP that I did things correctly and that seal "just goes bad sometimes..."

Factory Connection sells the seal for the low price of $20 The shop did me a favor (since I needed everything done ASAP) and currently is finishing things up for me today. Turns out BOTH inner chamber seals were bad and I now have about a $165 bill.

Thinking...
$60 drivers
$15 fork cap wrench
$75 Pivotworks fork rebuild kit
$25 2 qts fork oil.

---bad inner chamber seal--- changes the game to:

ADD
$100 labor
$25 for 2 more qts of fork oil
$40 for 2 seals

=$340

Learning that sometimes its just cheaper to take the fuggen things in and have the guy with the purpose built suspension bench do the work...priceless.

P.S. Thanks to Jeff over at JPSpeed and Bumpworks. Folks around here can check them out at www.JPSpeed.biz

[Asmith]

I attempted my first fork job this past weekend. I consider myself capable so I had no issues with doing this job myself. There are a few things to watch out for.

The outer chamber (fork legs) are relatively easy to change without incident. Follow the instructions here from Smash and the Honda manual.

The inner chamber gets a bit complicated. You must add a certain amount of fluid, measure, then bleed amount a certain amount of fluid (195 and 17 respectively, I recall) and then reassemble. Honda recommends replacing the ENTIRE inner chamber and damper asm ($300) if there are issues bleeding the inner chamber.

This is where my story begins. I couldn't get the inner to bleed. In fact, all 195ml of the expensive fork oil come pouring out everytime I try to bleed the inner system. I called my suspension guy (in a panic) and explained I was doing my forks myself and I was bringing him an already disassembled assembly and he needed to fix it. I love it when people do that to me...

Needless to say, Honda does not explain that the inner chamber won't bleed when the "Inner Chamber Seal" goes bad. Nor do they explain how to change that seal. This is how they collect the $300 from newbies thinking they jacked something up. I was assured from JP that I did things correctly and that seal "just goes bad sometimes..."

Factory Connection sells the seal for the low price of $20 The shop did me a favor (since I needed everything done ASAP) and currently is finishing things up for me today. Turns out BOTH inner chamber seals were bad and I now have about a $165 bill.

Thinking...
$60 drivers
$15 fork cap wrench
$75 Pivotworks fork rebuild kit
$25 2 qts fork oil.

---bad inner chamber seal--- changes the game to:

ADD
$100 labor
$25 for 2 more qts of fork oil
$40 for 2 seals

=$340

Learning that sometimes its just cheaper to take the fuggen things in and have the guy with the purpose built suspension bench do the work...priceless.

P.S. Thanks to Jeff over at JPSpeed and Bumpworks. Folks around here can check them out at www.JPSpeed.biz

Nice post!!!

Based on the amount of these bad floating piston seals that we see here in the shop, Ken has sourced and now stocks these seals at CRF'sONLY.

http://www.crfsonly.com/catalog/product ... ts_id/3237

He has them at $ 9.50 each.

When they are bad, it is very hard to bleed the inner chamber. Some guys will keep trying until it catches just right and bleeds. However, the seal is bad and once the fork gets used, it will fail and all the fluid will bypass. You may just think your forks suck...

They are an absolute bitch to change though...

[kerrycorcoran]

oh great, just what i wanted to hear. this is hte first post i have read with this mention...now i am not so confident in doing this myself. i am not nervous about the job at hand, just the extended downtime if it doesn't go as planned.

[124]

oh great, just what i wanted to hear. this is hte first post i have read with this mention...now i am not so confident in doing this myself. i am not nervous about the job at hand, just the extended downtime if it doesn't go as planned.

Kerry - If you are just changing seals, you can change the outer fork leg oil (& seals) no problem. Just take your time and follow the instructions. The inner isn't bad either, its just when things turn a different direction than normal...

I figured I would post this up to let the guys doing themselves know you are not completely poo-poo'ed when the inner won't bleed as the manual would indicate. They literally say to replace the entire Inner Chamber Asm if it doesn't bleed. For a seal that costs $9.50...

Got my forks back yesterday afternoon. It wouldn't have been a panic, but I'm leaving for my "3-rule" weekend up north tomorrow AM.

Got for it Kerry....

[kerrycorcoran]

Oh, I am defintely changing the seals...just hope things go well. I just hate "down time" - especially when it's nice outside!

Waiting on the parts/tools to arrive.

I'll keep you posted.

[CRF916]

These videos are good to watch for a first timer..

part1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0dLM_Io ... annel_page

part2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjtQp0Ns ... annel_page

[kerrycorcoran]

Okay, I watched the videos and everything is back together. Hoping I did things correctly. I'll be riding tomorrow, so I guess I'll know.

As for the Dampening Assy. I didn't have any issues. I followed the directions of another video http://www.another site.com/tv.php?id=YjGjSsWyMqA(about 1:50 minute into the video) that says to just filled the Dampening Assy. full, then slowly move the push rod up/down a few times to fill the push rod with oil. I did this and reassembled and the Dampening Rod would rebound when compressed like it should. Am I missing something, or did it really go this smoothly?

I think things are good, but given I have never done this I am a bit nervous.

Any insight appreciated.

[Asmith]

As long as the rebound rod extends to the full position, you've bled it correctly. If the floating piston seal is bad, it will not extend fully and fluid will continue to come out the two bleed holes.

[kerrycorcoran]

As long as the rebound rod extends to the full position, you've bled it correctly. If the floating piston seal is bad, it will not extend fully and fluid will continue to come out the two bleed holes.

Hmm, now I am bit concerned. It seemed when I tested the rebound rod would extend, but not sure it was going all the way. I could pull it out about an inch more.

If the floating piston seal is bad would I see oil leaking while testing?