/6 Fork Seals

[RShaub]

I recently picked up my first R bike, a 1975 R60/6, and am getting it road worthy. It's been sitting for a year, and needs a good bit of basic maintenance.

I cut away the dry-rotted fork boots, and found that that both of the fork seals are bad. The oil had come up out of the right side fork into the boot, and congealed into a glue-like mess. The left side just has a cracked seal. The boots had split, so there was water pooled in the boots.

Are the fork seals easily replaced by a person with average mechanical skills? Both of the manuals I have only have instructions for complete fork disassembly. Are the seals just a matter of removing the wheel, dropping the lower legs off, pulling and replacing the seals and refitting the lower legs? Or would I be opening a whole can of worms by pulling the lower legs?


Much thanks for the advice.

-Rich

[Guest]

http://www.airheads.org/

http://www.w6rec.com/duane/bmw/bmw.html

http://home.jps.net/~snowbum/techindex.htm

Look at these web sites for information on fork service....... I assume you have a service manual or aftermarket book. it helps.......
If the slack packs are still going on it could be a group effort. it always helps to have someone along sho has at least seen the procedure.

It is not difficult to simply remove the sliders and replace the fork tube seals. The /6 bike is one of the easier ones.......
Draining the fluid is a mess have a pan ready. and have a litre of 5-7 wt Fork oil. Measure the correct ammount when filling. Important!

The seals get pried out be careful not to scratch the slider. pay attention to the location of the metal on the old seal. use the new seal to figgure out shere to put the tip of the screwdriver. maybe you have a seal puller that will work!

We use a small ammount of white grease on the new seal. helps slide it up the dry tube.......

There is a lot more for servicing the forks but this gets you to the seal.

there is a special tool to seat the new seal. You dont want to destroy the lip of the new seal so be careful. find a socket that will just fit the outside of the new seal or get creative.

there may be 30 years of Spooge down in the sliders and many times the original plastic bumper can not be found because is has dissolved.

So it is simple and you can do it but there are other things to look for.

Join the airhead list and real everything you can about forks.......

there are some incredible experts on the Airhead mailing list. they can tell you more or point you to some web page info.

a lot of this procedure is already written up.

[RShaub]

Thanks for the tips and the links. I'll do a little more research.

-Rich