Gaffa tape is like "the force" - it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. Take fork upper and coat the seal mating face with seal grease (not normal grease). This is important as it will prevent the seal degrading and also the aluminium of the fork upper corroding. Take off the top cap - Remove inner damping rod – It will slide out as you tip the fork oil out – And remove fork spring.

The seal will start to make a distinct ‘metal tap’ sound as it seats against the metal of the fork upper. Remove forks from yokes and loosen the top cap on the forks – Do not actually remove the top cap at this point. As you will see in the video – the total time spent actually driving the seal into place is no more than 2 minutes. (Studying the video again and it is actually under 1min 30 seconds per seal)Clean forks thoroughly before taking forks apart – This makes it easier to stop mud and grit getting into the fork internals when they are apart. It did take a proper tug (oooer missus) ... thats why I mentiond to "not be afraid to give it some abuse" (or words to that effect). It will feel as if it is catching on something and is unnerving at first – But this is simply the internal bushes/washer hitting the fork seal. The seal is ‘pressure fitted’ and you are meant to use the correct seal driver or take it to a bike shop.

Laser Fork Oil Level Setting Tool Setting the fluid level in front forks accurately is critical to the safe handling of your bike and this tool makes it a piece of cake. Although I did this on a set of Kayaba UD Forks from a Yamaha WR400 ... I figure the basic principles will work on any fork. At this point it is important to note / write down how each part fits together – As you will be cleaning them all later on. To drive the seal down I use a cut down plastic drain pipe as a slide hammer. Get a plastic drain pipe at least maybe three times the width of a hand, ideally more.

Our experience is that the syringes with this product don't last forever with the interaction with suspension fluid and we would advise you to clean it out thoroughly after use. The syringe can be exchanged for a vacuum brake bleeding tool. The syringes on the professional version last much longer, so if you are stripping a lot of forks it is a better buy. Each fork type needs certain settings of the damping, oil, etc done. Eg: Some forks (Kayaba) require you to loosen off the damper before tightening the top cap. Ideally you’ll have used a section with a properly flat bottom, in which case you should be able to just drive straight down with a ‘slide hammer’ action (read wanking ), if it’s not properly flat at the bottom, you’ll need to keep turning the fork after each drive to ensure it stays evenly pushed down.

Make sure that it is slightly less than half of one side (obviously) so that you can easily put it around the fork leg. I have made a small video showing the 'hard bit' ... driving the new fork seal into place ... which shows how easy it is using home made tools.Reassemble fork spring, damper rod and top cap / Refill fork with new oil as per instructions in your manual. On UD forks the fork stanchion itself has the aluminium wheel thingy (technical term) at the bottom ... so you cannot just slip over a full seal or pipe. Not all upper and lower fork slider tubes are the same diameter, so this is going to take some patience on your part when in your local hardware store. If you can’t find something off the shelf like I did with the PVC coupler above, there is an alternative. However, in the age of big-box hardware stores, there are definitely opportunities to make your own specialty tool and save yourself some major cash.