On Saturday 6 July I'll be holding a wrench session at my shop in Tecumseh OK. I know Hop Along is coming over to replace a bad fork seal. I have plenty of room and would love to see several scooters being worked on!
I know it may be kind of hot out our way, but I do have a refrigerator in the shop.
Let me know if you can make it and I'll PM or email you the directions to the shop.
Let's do this! :cool:
oomph-aa! I can't wait! And reading up on this past weekend's session, I will double check that I've got ALL the correct parts for taking care of the leaking fork seal ;-)
Quote from: hop along on July 02, 2012, 10:46:15 AM
oomph-aa! I can't wait! And reading up on this past weekend's session, I will double check that I've got ALL the correct parts for taking care of the leaking fork seal ;-)
If you haven't already procured them, you'll want to purchase some progressive springs to put in while you fix your fork seal problem. Today was my first day riding alone on my new springs. They are a vast improvement.
I cannot agree more with Brandon, the progressive front fork springs are top 5 if not 3 mods that every Magna owner should perform.
Quote from: Greg Cothern on July 02, 2012, 08:39:46 PM
I cannot agree more with Brandon, the progressive front fork springs are top 5 if not 3 mods that every Magna owner should perform.
+1
I do indeed have the Progressives front and back... Installed about 40,000 miles ago, based on suggestions from this here forum :lol:
Unfortunately I've a leaking seal that the film trick can't cure.
On a side note, my partner and I rode last night with the Passenger Footpeg Extensions from Cycle-Istic last night, which I won as a door prize at MOOTmag... and my lovely partner deems them a GREAT addition! (of course I'm now in the doghouse for not doing that sooner!)
So big THANKS to Dobie at Cycle-Istic for the donation!
Hop Along
Quote from: hop along on July 03, 2012, 09:10:37 AM
Unfortunately I've a leaking seal that the film trick can't cure.
What's the film trick? I've got a leaking seal on my Valkyrie. Only about $100 in parts, but almost $350 in labor. I've watched the 3 video series showing fork seal replacement on a VTX1800, which I believe is the same forks as my Valk. I see why the labor is $350. Plus a special tool. If there's an easy way to do this, I'll sure give it a try.
The film trick is something I learned from dirt bike riders (which I also do on occasion)
take a bit of old film (you know, the stuff we took pictures with before digital...)
-Cut it such that it has a long slope to it, kinda like this: _
l l
l /
l/
Then gently feed it down between the slider seal and the fork.
Once in (about an inch or two is typically sufficient), rotate it so the sloped side is up a bit, then slide around the fork...
...while sliding around the fork, I try to keep the sloped side up, so that as I rotate around, and up, the slope side is trying to catch and 'pull out' any grit that is causing the problem.
As you can imagine, this problem happens a bit on the dirt bikes (which is why they often have fork gaiters). This is a quick easy cheap trick that often-though not always-works.
Sadly, it does not work on my current problem, thus my need to change fork seals on my Magna.
Hope that makes sense?....
Hop Along
Quote from: guywheatley on July 03, 2012, 09:35:05 AM
I see why the labor is $350. Plus a special tool.
I did my valk not too long after getting it. It's not really that bad. I have the fork tool and the insertion tool. Come on over and we'll fix her up.
BudMan, hopalong, Thanks to both of you guys. I'll give the film trick a try. If that doesn't work, I'll consider Bud Man's offer.
Saturday AM... join us ?!?
Say Buddy, what time are we itchin to start? Sounds like it'll be warm again... anytime is good for me, and I can bring coffee/donuts as needed... or breakfast burritos from RUDY'S
Scott
I figure we'll go from 0800 until we get it all done!
As Homer Simpson would say,"Mmmm, Doooonuts." (I'll cover the coffee.)
Thanks for the invite, but I'm locked down here in T-town for the next several weeks. I'm running shorthanded at work. While I get to actually start the weekends at home, I'm on call and often have to run in for a least a little while.
Maybe I can get a full crew back in and trained one of these days.
ps-Buddy do you have a CB unit?
Hop Along
I do on the Valk, but I don't have the proper headset installed any more.
Karen and I just use a BlueAnt bluetooth intercom. I could barely understand the CB anyway.
Ah, gotcha
PM me with an address or directions to your place? I could just ride around Tecumseh till I find your bike, but it could take too long.. the donuts wouldn't last :lol:
Looks like just us
Hop Along
I *was* going to show up since I'm only about 4 hours away, but things have picked up today at work and I'm the on-call this weekend, so I can't be away from a computer for the 8 hours there and back.
:-(
Bummer. Oh well, we'll do this again before too long I'm sure.
Well in most regards the session was a success :D
The weather to ride out from Norman was perfect-there was even a little wet stuff in the air to keep it cool. In fact it was so nice, I managed to miss the turnoff. Of course the road sign was a bit hard to read, or at least that's the story I'm sticking to.
Bud has a neat little setup to stabilize the bike while working on it. I may have to borrow this concept...see the bottom picture for reference.
Lots of stories were shared, and I'd like to say that's what took us so long to deal with replacing fork seals, but we did have some difficulty in removing the two 6mm allen head drain bolts at the bottom of the forks. As in, a trip to Lowe's and a phone call to Greg to make sure we weren't about to *really* mess things up. He assured us we were on the right track; and indeed, after a good tip from him, a plain 'ol allen key and vice grips were enough to break those two bolts loose move forward.
although there is at least one sticking point still... we had a lot of donuts left over at the end!
Thanks again Bud for hosting. I learned several new shop tricks-in addition to replacing fork seals... I really appreciate it!
And I do have a tire changer, and a truck, I could always drive out there and we could change that tire you have....
Hop Along
Thanks for the report Hop Along, is that your bike being serviced. You have enough donuts left over for the next wrench session.
Just a follow up on the film trick. It seems to have worked. Thanks for the info. You guys just saved me ton of money and work.
Terry-
That is my bike being worked on, in Bud's shop
Guy-
good to hear! Keep an eye on it in the future. Wish it'd worked on mine, what made our job hard was two *stuck like a duck* bolts. But now I feel quite prepared for next time ;-)
Scott
Well... It was a small group (2), but we met the objective of the session and had fun and some great donuts! We had quite a time getting those bottom bolts out but the post mortem on the bolt showed the problem. We found Loctite RED solidified in the threads. The manual does in fact call for thread sealer on the bolt, but I don't think PERMANENT sealant is called for. We used Loctite BLUE and torqued the bolts to the appropriate value IAW the manual.
We tried using an impact driver to remove the bolt, but found the spring and rotational action of the fork absorbed the force of the driver. So much for fancy tools; the old brute force approach got the job done!
The excess donuts were rescued from getting stale while waiting for the next wrench session :oops: (burp).