01 426 Fork Seals

[BRYANS01]

my fork seals are leaking like a pig, ive done fork seals like 12 yrs ago on my old 92 yz 250 are the forks much diff. now, i called the local shops here and they want 110.00 per fork just to put seals in and thats if i just bring the forks in, does this sound right or like to much, is it that hard to do myself?

thanks guys

P.S. the 110 is not including seals or oil so its just labor

[grayracer513]

If they're going to charge you that, then they should be planning to completely disassembled and clean the internals, and put it back together.

Just to change the seals should be about $120-$150 for both, depending on their labor rate.

The '01 is not a complicated fork. You could buy a Real Repair Guy fork seal driver for $60 and do it yourself.

[BRYANS01]

i remember having to make a tool out of a piece of pipe that i cut a notch in to take out the nut the holds the forks together (if i rem. right) am i going to need this again? and is the seal driver a must or can i make one of those to?. I think the only thing im really afraid of is fork oil levels and any special tools i dont want to get them halfway apart then say oh crap.

[BASSic]

Here are some tips for homemade tools that work with the 426 forks:

A "cheap" fork seal driver

A "cheap" cartridge holder

A "cheap" damping rod holder

[GCannon]

You can buy a fancy fork oil level tool or you can get a turkey marinade syringe ( or any syringe) with a peice of hose and a set of calipers with a depth guage.

Works perfect.

[BRYANS01]

thanks guys for the help i think ill just do it myself, those links are great, the cartridge holder is what i rem having to make so it must be a similar setup.

so do you have to measure depth of the fluid or can i just measure the amount of oil i put in?

[grayracer513]

If all you are doing is replacing the seals, there is no need to remove the fork cartridge or base valve, so all you have to have is a seal driver. You could make one out of PVC as shown, but I'll guarantee it won't work nearly as well as the real deal. Besides, there's less risk of damage to the seal using the right one.

[BRYANS01]

thanks gray ill just buy the tool, at least ill have it for the future. ill give it a try this weekend.

[grayracer513]

You have the manual, right?

[BRYANS01]

ya i have pdf file i uploaded from this forum.

[rufusz]

You can use your home made seal driver just watch for hitting directly on the spring in the seal...the PVC pipes inner diameter (if you don't cut it in half) should be bigger than the inner tube diameter (with about 4 mm), this way it push the seal down without braking the spring. If you cut the pipe in half, you can position it on the seal the way you want it. Good luck

[whyzee426F]

...and learned that not one, but two manuals show the seal/bushing order wrong in pictures. The factory Yamaha manaul and the Clymer manual are both wrong!

Having said that, it was the worst thing I encountered doing the job.

I didn't need a single special tool. I bought Pivot Works kit and used the old fork seal (after cutting thru one side) to press the new seal into the fork tube with a neoprene malet...they nearly went in with my fingers but needed a little extra nudge.

Didn't need the PVC tool to hold the internals either, I just put a long flat blade into the fork and unscrewed the 14mm end cap while holding the driver.

The job was actually very easey, I was just disappointed that the manual had the picture wrong, which was obvious once I started reassembly.

This whole fork rebuild process has been made to seem way more difficult than it is. Glad I saved the $ and did it myself with no special tools! ?