Another fork rebuild thread.

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

So I'm getting ready to either rebuild (or have rebuilt) the stock for of my '92 GS. I've ordered the fork seals already, and am getting ready to order .85kg springs from RaceTech and new dust seal/wipers. My friend/mechanic told me that it's definitely worth replacing the bushings while the fork is already in pieces, however the salesman at Race Tech has no information on which ones I should order.

In the rebuild videos, they seem to be reusing the stock bushings. Is this something you guys usually replace when you rebuild your forks?

[werase643]

i have never replaced the bushings
but you do what you gotta do.

i never replaced every seal and o ring on a set of caliper til last year.   but the guy bought 200+ $ worth of parts and asked me to install them.... then the crackhead pawned the bike for 800.... crackhead.....

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

i have never replaced the bushings
but you do what you gotta do.

I'd rather not! I want to just put in fresh fork seals, dust seals, and the Racetech springs and call it a day. I'd rather not turn this into the most expensive $500 bike I've ever purchased.

And oil. I should probably put in oil.

[fleshpiston]

oil is good 



You don't know the condition of the bushings until you have them apart, how many miles on them?

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

Under 15,000 if the odometer is to be trusted.

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

DONE! I did my first-ever fork rebuild. I used Sonic .85kg/mm springs, 15w oil and the spacers were cut to 1/2" of preload. It was kind of messy, but not as horrible as i though it might be. My new fork is paired-up with a 2004 Katana 600 rear shock that I just installed, currently cranked down to minimum preload because I don't weigh that much.

I'm lucky enough to have an earlier GS where the damping rods have a recess for (essentially) a 24mm allen wrench. I went to the Home Depot and found that 5/8" nuts are about 23.6mm wide, which means they fit perfectly into the top of the damping rod. I bought a 24" length of 5/8" threaded rod and screwed two nuts onto either end, tightened HARD against one another and secured in place with red Loc-Tite. I inserted my newly-made tool into the fork and held the end firmly with a large crescent wrench while unscrewing the 8mm damping-rod bolt from the bottom. A word of advice: assuming your fork has this style of damping-rod (and not the later one that's apparently rounded and won't work this way) don't bother messing around with broom handles and whatnot. It's simply not worth it-- I wasted too much time trying to make other things fit, and only after giving up did $6 worth of hardware completely solve my problem.

The oil that came out was dark silver. Smelled like seriously old industrial machinery.

The bike isn't registered or insured at the moment so I only felt comfortable riding it around the block a few times, but it feels fantastic now. The front-end dive is normal and controlled, and it doesn't bottom out, wallow or CLUNK over nasty pot-holes. I can't wait to get some fresh tires on this and get it street-legal! This bike is gonna be rad.