Fork seal r & r

Woodaddict

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Take the front wheel off, then each fork. Being on center stand with a weight on passenger side of seat, NT will not fall forward. I did it. Then you can save that amount of labor
 
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How did it turn out? I am going to R&R my forks over thanksgiving or christmas as the oil has never been changed (according to the former owner). So I'm going to freshen up the oil and change the fork seals anyway. I do the work myself, but was curious about your labor costs.
 
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How did it turn out? I am going to R&R my forks over thanksgiving or christmas as the oil has never been changed (according to the former owner). So I'm going to freshen up the oil and change the fork seals anyway. I do the work myself, but was curious about your labor costs.
Yep KTM360mx I never changed the fork oil because I didn't think the fork seals were leaking. Sorry I'm not a mechanic and I thought it was still okay to ride as long as the fork oil wasn't leaking. Are the fork seals starting to leak now? P.S. I don't know how helpfull this thread is but it might be worth checking.

http://www.nt-owners.org/forums/showthread.php?10311-Fork-Oil-Flush-Recommendation

P.S. KTM360mx That bikes engine, final drive, and important things were maintained. I just neglected the suspension and washing the bike everything else should be good.
 
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I am going to R&R my forks over thanksgiving or christmas as the oil has never been changed
Get yourself some nose plugs. The original fork oil is seriously foul smelling stuff. With that many miles on it, the bushings should be looked at and maybe replaced. They have a coating (Teflon, maybe?) that makes it pretty obvious when they wear. It's worth completely disassembling the forks just to clean out the sludge that collects at the bottom.
 

Woodaddict

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i take them off and take them to my local private guy who does work at his house. even around 99K he asked me to get what he calls "crush washers", they are copper slides inside that wear
 
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RedNigel
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I had my local dealer do the forks and we changed the steering head bearings too. It feels like a fifferent bike altogether
 

Phil Tarman

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Plus one on the new head bearings. I did that at about 50K, and used All Balls' tapered roller bearings. Big improvement!
 
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i take them off and take them to my local private guy who does work at his house. even around 99K he asked me to get what he calls "crush washers", they are copper slides inside that wear
Anytime I go through the effort to remove the forks for an oil change, I replace the fork seals and the upper/lower bushings (what your guy is calling "crush washers" I assume). It doesn't take much time since the forks are already apart and is a good idea to keep them in top shape.
 
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Yep KTM360mx I never changed the fork oil because I didn't think the fork seals were leaking. Sorry I'm not a mechanic and I thought it was still okay to ride as long as the fork oil wasn't leaking. Are the fork seals starting to leak now? P.S. I don't know how helpfull this thread is but it might be worth checking.

http://www.nt-owners.org/forums/showthread.php?10311-Fork-Oil-Flush-Recommendation

P.S. KTM360mx That bikes engine, final drive, and important things were maintained. I just neglected the suspension and washing the bike everything else should be good.
The bike is great! And no worries. Usually you don't change fork oil until the seals leak. I just figured that with 150k on the clock, might be a good idea. The bike is tight and rides great! We love it!

Changing fork seals is easy, fork oil is easier. However, it helps to have a tutorial or someone to go through it with you for the first time. Will the oil smell? Sure, really bad? Nah.

Crush washers? You need them if you remove the internals (removed from the bottom). Depending on what you are doing you may or may not need to do that.

Forks are intimidating, but pretty easy to work with, especially the NT forks.
 

DirtFlier

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[...Usually you don't change fork oil until the seals leak...]

That may not be the best policy because while waiting for the seals to start leaking, you're riding around with very dirty, gritty fork oil. I change my fork oil roughly every 2-years and disassemble everything and wash thoroughly. And typically, I DO NOT change fork seals at that time because they're still OK. You'll be amazed at the grunge that accumulates in the bottom of the slider!
 

Phil Tarman

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The early Concours had a fork plug at the bottom which could be removed to drain the oil from the fork. Kawasaki changed the fork design in '94 and omitted that plug, but a quite a few people performed a modification which added a drain plug. I don't know if that improved things as far as fork seals and bushings went, but they argued that it was easier to clean the forks if you could drain from the bottom.

I don't know if such a plug could be added to the NT or if it would be an improvement or not -- any opinions?
 

DirtFlier

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Removing the 8 mm allen bolt from the bottom of the fork slider serves the same function as a drain hole plus is much bigger but it only works if the fork is disassembled.

I recall when bikes almost universally had those 6 mm drain bolts for the fork, the accumulated grunge in the bottom often made them ineffective for draining.
 
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junglejim

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The early Concours had a fork plug at the bottom which could be removed to drain the oil from the fork. Kawasaki changed the fork design in '94 and omitted that plug, but a quite a few people performed a modification which added a drain plug. I don't know if that improved things as far as fork seals and bushings went, but they argued that it was easier to clean the forks if you could drain from the bottom.

I don't know if such a plug could be added to the NT or if it would be an improvement or not -- any opinions?
I was one of the ones who drilled a hole in the bottom of my forks and installed a drain plug on the old C10. It facilitad a fluid change, but wasn't a substitute for disassembly and re-building and repairing.

I thought about doing the same on the NT, but I won't drill a hole into something blindly. There might be something important behind there that the drill/tap would damage. I'll take a look this winter when I do my forks. - But then if I remove them then I won't need the drain holes.
 

DirtFlier

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Typically when they had fork drain bolts, the fork slider had a raised boss so there was enough material for the threads. Drilling and tapping into the NT sliders shouldn't be difficult but you won't have much material thickness for the threads, plus it doesn't have a flat surface for the fiber gasket to work properly. I much prefer to just take them apart every two years, clean all the innards and do a good inspection of the bushings, check for dings or scratches on the fork tubes, etc.
 

Phil Tarman

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the accumulated grunge in the bottom often made them ineffective for draining.
I wondered about that. When we rebuilt the forks on my Connies that didn't have drain plugs, there was lots of grunge and we had to flush diligently to get it all out.
 
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