Triumphrat

Petrol

My Thunderbird has a drippy fork seal.I`ve never changed one .Any hints or tips?,parts are on order.

patrol21

Hey petrol,

Check out the threads for good info. I have had my front end of 3 times over the last few years. A couple of tips

1) Use OEM seals....the extra few bucks is worth it.
2) makes sure you have "0" nicks, dings on the tubes. I had a couple and after a couple of seal changes within 5K, I replaced...no leaks since.
3) Not a hard job but there is one tool that you cannot do this job without. The dampening rod is held in place near the base of the tube and you must be able to loosen this. You can order a tool from triumph but it's expensive. I found a brass cap (six sided) that I was able to insert into a steel rod (aprox 3 ft). This fits into the head of the dampening rod and holds it while you spin the tube. This breaks it loose from it's threads.
4) When seating the oil seals, Triumph reccomends using another special tool.....I found that a piece of PVC pipe also works nicely. Hell, the last time I took apart a fly rod holder as it was the perfect diameter to drive the seal. As long as you are uniform with the pressure. Just don't try to seat it unevenly.
5) If you think the front ends are a bit spongy, kick up the oil weight. Progressive springs are the next step and not that expensive.


good luck

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The worst day riding beats the best day at work....no exceptions.

KD5QOQ

"Not a hard job but there is one tool that you cannot do this job without. The dampening rod is held in place near the base of the tube and you must be able to loosen this. You can order a tool from triumph but it's expensive."

I have done this with a 3/8 impact. It spins the bolt fast enough that a tool is not needed.

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Jimbo
Kroger Plus Member
99 Adventurer(cafe'd), 06 SV1000S
05YZ450F
89 CR500

gregp

I have also used a broom handle (!) for this job. Just use a broom stick and whittle the end down to a taper, then stick the tapered end down into the end of the damper rod (from the top of the fork tube). Tap it a few times with a hammer or tap the entire assembly (upside down) on the floor, to get the wood to comform to the shape of the hex inside of the damper rod. This is usually sufficient to hold the damper rod from turning while you loosen/ remove the bolt at the base.
I know that it sounds crude, but it works!

MickMaguire

I too have used greg's brom handle method - it works ok.

Spinning it out with an impact wrench doesnt always work especially if the loctite binds

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Mick...

Just remember; an awful lot of the free advice you will get on forums is worth exactly what you paid for it. There will always be somebody trying to convince you to do something really stupid, just because they did it or want to do it.

IrlMike

Didn't need the tool either to hold the damper rod bolts, left forks assembled & tackled these first, just loosening at this stage. My allen key just turned round in the heads tho' with hardly any pressure. Hammered in the nearest torx size to get some grip & used impact driver - no problem, could probably have used the (now) torx bolts again! - but didn't .

The copper washers on the bolts seemed to be a bit oversize & had trouble removing bolt & washer once I had the fork off the bike. Bit tricky pushing the bolt out from the top....Clipped the washers to smaller outside diameter & reused - no leaks.

BTW, fitting Racetech cartridge emulators was my reason for diassembly - rate this mod AA++

Hope the job goes well for you.