Fork seals leaking 2007 GL1800

[GrandpaDave]

Hi all, My wife and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Michigan to attend a family wedding. We took our motorhome and the trike. When we loaded the trike one evening after a day of exploring the UP of Michigan I discovered the forks were leaking. Now that we're back home I have a project obviously. I've been looking at some You Tube videos of replacing seals and bushings and contemplating doing the job in my shop. The bike has 42k miles on it I have no idea if they've been replaced before but i doubt it.

If anyone has any suggestions or concerns before I start the project please share them.

Thanks

Dave

[trikeman]

Your mechanic skills and proper tools are the key. Take pics and make notes as you disassemble makes reassemble much easier. Good luck

[Mick]

When you go to replace parts use only original Honda. I used AllBalls and less than 4 years later they started leaking. They just got replaced with Honda parts. Take pics take your time and make sure you have the throttle cables routed correctly and the front wheel aligned on the axle correctly. The only thing that worried me was getting the bolts out of the bottom of the fork legs so I bought Harbor frights cheapest impact gun and a set of extended socket allen wrenches and as long as you have the caps on the forks when you go to get the bolts out the impact makes it a breeze.

[jjvw]

Missed being able to see you while you were here. How's Peg feeling? We still have to ride together some day.

Sometimes if you can find the leak, a super thin feeler gauge, run under the seal can dislodge whats causing the leak.

I changed out many forks seals, when I was trying to make up some longer forks for our yamaha. I used a piece of threaded rod with a couple nuts securing a socket on it, to hold the nut on the bottom bolt. A couple fender washers with nuts, can help center it in the bore.

A long piece of plastic plumbing pipe used like an old well point driver, will seat the seals. If you can't find the right size, use a reducer and/or a short piece slit to fit around the fork.

There will be a lot of gunk in the bottom. I cleaned it out with mineral spirts than an atf rinse. There are many u tube vids on changing the forks. The honda forums will tell you how much and what weight oil to use.

Good luck

[GrandpaDave]

Missed being able to see you while you were here. How's Peg feeling? We still have to ride together some day.

Sometimes if you can find the leak, a super thin feeler gauge, run under the seal can dislodge whats causing the leak.

I changed out many forks seals, when I was trying to make up some longer forks for our yamaha. I used a piece of threaded rod with a couple nuts securing a socket on it, to hold the nut on the bottom bolt. A couple fender washers with nuts, can help center it in the bore.

A long piece of plastic plumbing pipe used like an old well point driver, will seat the seals. If you can't find the right size, use a reducer and/or a short piece slit to fit around the fork.

There will be a lot of gunk in the bottom. I cleaned it out with mineral spirts than an atf rinse. There are many u tube vids on changing the forks. The honda forums will tell you how much and what weight oil to use.

Good luck

Hi John,

Peg's doing OK now. Yes, one of these days we need to get together and get some riding done.

I have all the parts ordered and they should be here later this week . Plan to tackle the project after the 4th of July. I've been watching You Tube videos the past two weeks and have gotten some good information on doing the job.

I really appreciate the comments made to my post, FYI.

Dave

[FuzzyWuzHe]

When you load the trike do you put a preload on the forks ... over doing the pre load care cause premature failure.

When I traded my 08 Wing With a champion conversion, I loaded it as I normally do and put a little preload on the forks. When I got to the dealer, the front forks were gushing fluid ... total failure. The dealer was kewl and said he would have his mechanics replace them. He also told me when you trailer a bike/trike, if you have too much preload, and have a bad road, the bouncing will cause the forks to bottom out and fail prematurely ... made sense to me.

[GrandpaDave]

Here's an update. I ordered the seals, bushings and some other miscellaneous parts from Partzilla and received them in just a few days. I watched the partzilla You Tube video on replacing the fork seals several times before starting and determined I needed to add a few items to my tool box - 45mm seal / bushing installation tool and Extended length metric Allen wrench sockets.

The disassembly and cleanup went well.

The left fork re-assembled perfectly.

The right fork was not so good. The damper assembly broke during the assembly process. I threaded it into the end cap and as soon as I began to snug up the lock nut it broke right on the threaded end.

I contacted Partzilla and ordered a replacement assembly and a day later got an e-mail that the part was on back order with no idea when it would be available.. So my internet search for another source began with no luck finding the part anywhere. I then started checking motorcycle salvage businesses and found a part in Georgia. It arrived yesterday and the trike is now back together and tested out just fine.

[LadyonaMission]

I am happy that your trike is fixed. I sure missed you guys this winter. Tell Peg "hello" for me.

[FRR]

What does it cost to have a dealer replace leaking fork seals on a GL1800?