Sorry mate, I wouldnt attempt it but seeing as I was only charged twenty quid a leg for seals on a 600 yamaha a while back I dont think it that much of a job - its just that Im a muppet!
Ask essexBiker - his dad is a fixer of bikes.

Dave like DP said its no big deal,the harest thing is keeping the front end up while your doing them.I you can be bothered to take the plastics off you can do it with a trolley jack.
Ive got paddock stands,tools,trolley jack and the space to do it since ive sold the CBR so if you want to bring it up when were off work at chrimbo i will give you a hand .
I am only 10 mins away.Alan

I doubt if you'd bend the tubes just dropping it, you'd need to run into something solid







so I'm told



The bars may have twisted the top yolk when they hit the ground though. I'd just loosen the top yolk clamps off and bang the front wheel against a wall, then tighten up again. Dunno why, but it seems to straighten things out a treat.

I will give the top yoke stuff a go then. I might as well do it, while I've got the weight off the front end.

How hard is it to do the fork seals.

I'm thinking about an overhaul, I also want to check the tubes are straight.

Anybody got any tips.

If you want to do it yersel its no biggie BD.

I've always found it easier to "remove" the old seal "in situ"
that is push the dust covers up out of the way, then using a small-ish flat blade driver puncture the seal & gently prise it up out of the leg.
Once thats done then drop the fork assy off the bike, slide the old un off & replace with nice shiney new item-you can use the old one to seat the new if reqd.

The easiest way to check yer tubes are straight is to (while both are off the bike) place one directly against the other.
If one is bent you will soon know as there should be NO gap between either tube-so simple innit?
I cant take credit for that bit mind-a M8 of mine pointed it out to me once when I was being typically thick & banging on about "laser frame jigs"-ahh the simple hings in life.
Do you have reason to think the viffer has bent forks?

Yip, I dropped the bike on a U-turn, when I was out with the IAM one night.  :blush:  :hmm:

I always had a feeling that there's a twist in them since then.

yep, i agree with the above, just loosen the yokes and they will prob straighten themselves. if you want to check if there bent, best way is to take the tubes right out and roll them on a flat surface.. you'll soon tell if there bent! :p

if they are bent anyone with a press should be able to straighten them , providing the metal isnt kinked

Hmmmmm. I've had the seals done on my CB5 3 times now. If your forks are ok then it should be fine doing it yourself but if like mine they need filled then get someone to do it for you. I'll try that trick with the wall and see if it works.

Ash:)

I've been trying to avoid walls and things - don't sound like something I should even be reading.

I shall be putting new fork seals on my baby Yamaha when I put the new fork tubes on - and I'd like to avoid the problem I had when I did the seals on the SuperDream.

I, er, put them in upside down!  

It was very easy to get it wrong!  I really thought they wer right way up - so HOW do I tell which way they go?  They looked the same both sides.........

OK, so no-one knows!

That's alright, I'll ask them in the bike shop when I'm buying them!  I shop in a bike shop that's run by real bikers - they're experts at bearings too, cos that's where they started out....

If you can see a little curly spring type thing on one side of the seal, that goes towards the oil - i.e. downwards