Forks seal whoas...

[skudman]

I just got back from the local Suzuki Stealership only to find they want $125.00 labor to rebuild my forks, and ~$125.00 for the metal slides, oil seals, and dust seals...tell me that $250.00 sounds outrageous and Im not going crazy, and that is the price off the bike. 

[knowles]

i bought Pyramid fork seals for $32 shipped ( thats with the oil seals, and rubber wipers.) $125 for labor is a little bit high. i have labor for about $100

[adidasguy]

#5033

A few unknowns here.
1. Where are you? It is not in your profile. That may be OK for labor where you're located.
2. What year are the forks? Newer forks are harder to work on than older forks (even with the "special tool" which does not work - I bought one.)
3. What is the "metal slide" you refer to? $30-$45 for fork seals and dust covers is OK so what are the "metal slides" and what do they cost?
4. Are you removing the forks  from the bike? If not,  part of the labor is taking them off and putting them back on.

They are putting new oil (there's another $10 in value).

[skudman]

i bought Pyramid fork seals for $32 shipped ( thats with the oil seals, and rubber wipers.) $125 for labor is a little bit high. i have labor for about $100

Reliable brand? never herd of them.

#5033

A few unknowns here.
1. Where are you? It is not in your profile. That may be OK for labor where you're located.
2. What year are the forks? Newer forks are harder to work on than older forks (even with the "special tool" which does not work - I bought one.)
3. What is the "metal slide" you refer to? $30-$45 for fork seals and dust covers is OK so what are the "metal slides" and what do they cost?
4. Are you removing the forks  from the bike? If not,  part of the labor is taking them off and putting them back on.

They are putting new oil (there's another $10 in value).

1.Portland OR. Shop rate is $89.00 and hour, they do a flat rate for forks at $125.00
2.Forks are 2006, I was contemplating purchasing one as well, but if its not worth it...
3.1091540 Bike bandit part number, service manager says at my milage (23,XXX) they are most likely worn and need replacing
4. Yes they have been removed, Im rather handy with a wrench, especially when its all laid out for you. (good write-ups  )

thanks for the quick response!

[adidasguy]

#5034

Pyramid is a company from down under. Its either them, K&L, OEM or a coulpe other brands. Both Pyramid and K&L use the same dust caps (I bought both brands and discovered that) and the dust caps, for some reason, cost more than  the seals.

It can take an hour to do a pair of forks. Then there is the oil, crush washers, seal retaining clip, maybe o-ring in the cap - things included in the flat rate labor cost. Probably easier to do flat rate so the tech can do whatever is necessary and not get bogged down in  paperwork or making you feel nickle and dimed by charging 50 cents for a crush washer.

Given the cost of the slider ring, if it is worn, then parts are within reason.

Member iclrag is on his way up from Portland as we write, to get a chain guard (I guess other Seattle business, too, but nice to think he's coming just to get a chain guard  ). Too bad you didn't come with him and you could use that "special tool" to re-do your forks yourself. I have plenty of seals, oil and space. No metal sliders, as  I've never replaced those.

Here's the conundrum/difficulty/problem.
New forks - not much for any tool to grab on. A very poor design.


Older forks, simple:

[gsJack]

One of the fork seals started leaking on my current 02 GS and I bought a pair of Suzuki seals online for about $30.  Replaced the leaking one at 69k miles and was lucky to get the allen head on the bottom loose with the fork tube still in the triples and the spring still inside holding the damper part.  Then took the fork off, replaced the seal only, and used the old wiper.  I don't have a workbench or vice so it was easier to leave the fork tube in the triples while I pounded the seal out by pounding the slider up and down.  Never got around to putting the other seal in so at 95k miles I still have a spare seal if I need it.   

I carried a pair of Nighthawk 650 forks in to an independent and got seals and wipers replaced for about $110-120 back in the mid 90's.  One of the seals started leaking on my 97 GS at around 50k miles and I carried the forks into another shop for seals and wipers plus some gaiters to protect the fork tubes and it ran about $250 for the pair.  I'm not surprised at the price quote you got from the Suzuki shop.  Do-it-yourself remains the best bargain.   

[Huff1371]

I did the ones on my 96 for the first time and it took about 1 1/2 hrs. Got some seals for $10 on fleabay and made a tool for $free.99 . Now I know mine are the easier ones but still. If you try to do it yourself and either can't or screw it up you are gonna spend the money for  the shop to put things back in their place but if you use the great resource called gstwins.com and succeed, you've not only saved  money to spend on parts/beer/guns/games/gear but also learned something.

[Erika]

I did it myself (well... with help from a friend holding stuff for me while one of us wrenched) and the tips from the beer garage helped...

http://beergarage.com/GSForkSeals.aspx

Waaayyy cheaper. But expect it to take a whole afternoon if you never did it before... like me. Just realize the first one will take a while, but the second one will go faster since you discover all the quirks by then. I took the special tool they made in that link and turned the fork upside down on top of the special tool. (I didn't have a proper way to clamp onto the fork) So I just stood on top of a socket wrench on the special tool and turned the damper rod to unscrew it. A friend helps to hold stuff or give extra leverage. Once you figure that part out, everything else is easy.

I ordered oem parts from bikebandit.com and went to a hardware store to make the special tool.

[Huff1371]

One thing that really helped me was taking everything apart ON the bike. Just support the front by picking up on it so the rear tire is down then putting some wooden blocks under the frame. This completly did away with the need for a vise for the fork tube and it was quite easy to seperate the two. Then just pulled it off to re-assemble.

[Erika]

One thing that really helped me was taking everything apart ON the bike. Just support the front by picking up on it so the rear tire is down then putting some wooden blocks under the frame. This completly did away with the need for a vise for the fork tube and it was quite easy to seperate the two. Then just pulled it off to re-assemble.

How did you get the oil out of the forks w/out turning them upside down?

[Huff1371]

I unscrewed the bolt in the bottom. then when I pulled them apart I made sure it was in a bucket. It really was quite easy, another thing going for me was the fact there was very little oil in there. Hence the reason for needing the change. What one could do is pump it out with a mighty-vac or something

[RichDesmond]

I just got back from the local Suzuki Stealership only to find they want $125.00 labor to rebuild my forks, and ~$125.00 for the metal slides, oil seals, and dust seals...tell me that $250.00 sounds outrageous and Im not going crazy, and that is the price off the bike. 

That's a reasonable price. You have to remember that "labor" and the parts markup includes all the overhead. Cost of the building, all the utilities, taxes,  insurance (waaaaay more money than you think, probably) bookkeeper, accountant...on and on. And at the end, maybe a little profit for the owner to live on. Nobody's getting rich owning a bike shop.
And it really chaps my hide that people use the term "stealership" to refer to people trying to make an honest living. 

[Huff1371]

I guess the $250 for the 1hr of work is completely reasonable if you are rich because you own a stealership. No joke, the local "dealership" owner and his father live in some very nice homes and have this father and son car thing where the both have new Zr-1 vettes. Knowing a few guys that have worked there they all agree "all their money comes from charging ridiculous amounts for easy stuff like fork seals and tire mounting." I don't hate someone who has a successful yet not necessary business model but if can save $235 on fork seals so they can't fill their vettes up this weekend, I'm not losing any sleep.