Hi Everyone,

We just picked up a 1996 GS500E for my wife. It needs fork seals. Has anyone done these? Any words of wisdom?

Were new to the forum here so thanks in advance for the help and we look forward to sharing in your knowledge.

It definitely helps to have two people working on it.

There is a special tool for holding a part inside that you need to build if you don't have air tools, I've seen a few versions.  Kerry and I did mine last week and he came up with a little bit of an improvement on the design, but I don't know well enough what he used to tell you.  I'm sure he'll come along and give you the details, he pays more attentions to the forums than I do... just a bit.  :mrgreen:

If you're replacing your seals anyway, though, I highly recommend getting progressive springs ($46 or so) and 15w fork oil... it makes a big difference, and the hardest part of "doing it right" is changing the oil, but you'll want to do that if you're changing the seals anyway.

It took us about 6 hours to do, but the second side was pretty quick.  most of the time was figuring out what needed to be done and getting things together.

Also, 1 1/2" PVC, about 1'6" or so is real useful to help you get the oil seal in all the way when you put it back on.  You can hit it with a hammer to put it back in place.

Good luck!

The fairly recent thread Bad Day Wrenching on the GS will show you various methods for loosening/tightening that pesky Allen bolt at the bottom of the forks.

In general, I would say to get a Haynes or Clymer repair manual and follow the directions.  Hopefully you have a good set of tools (mostly Allen wrenches and sockets).  You can check the diagrams on http://www.bikebandit.com to see what parts you might need, and even order them from there.  (Click on "OEM Parts" and supply the year, make and model of the bike, then click on the "Front Damper" link.)

Don't forget to do a Search on this site for "fork seals" or another relevant phrase.  (Check the "Search for all items" radio button to limit the results somewhat.)