Katana Owners Club U.K.

Seems the time has come to replace the fork seals on the bike (1000) as one is starting to weep a bit and leave the tell tale ring of black....
According to the men at Haynes, the damper rod can be held using a piece of wood with a bit of shaving to one end....is this the best way, or is there a cunning alternative?
Also, says the bushes should be replaced when you take the forks apart, but have looked at Robinson's and the bushes seem to be about £300 each! Surely this can't be correct....can it?
Any pointers from wise people gladly received...

Cheers,
Bob

That's interesting Robinsons show it as a hand written number #39 on their website @£300 <chokes on coffee> but cms-nl don't list it at all.

Maybe Robinsons have someone hand filing them from unobtanium

Is item #7 effectively the lower bush although it is listed as a piston. At the price being quoted a decent machine shop should be able to turn a pair up for you.

Firstly do you cover many miles on this bike? Is the handling adversely affected? If not put tissue under the cap......black line disappears ...passes MOT....pocket sighs.

The stem at base is basically an Allen bolt but with a wider star design over it.....so in theory any thing that connects with the edges will hold it ....if it ain't tooooooo tight! this why wood works ...it shapes.
I use a Land Rover jack handle that has a square on the bottom about 1"across.

The price quoted from Suzuki is because not all bushes are obtainable individually and this price reflects the damper aswell. Do they need renewing ? Generally not unless you have many many miles or racing .
The top bushes can be damaged getting out whole damper as it will need to be extracted to get to damper.

Changing fork seals can be done using a hook made from large screwdriver to prise the old one out.....
Not shown in manuals but tight arsed dispatch riders can do it in an hour from wheel out to wheel in!

Having just stripped both front ends off my 1100's and also have done this previously.

I had no success with the broom handle method, plus you will want to hold it tight to put the bolt back in and at that stage do you want to risk bits of (splintered) wood in the fork tube?

I did buy the proper Suzuki tool which you could probably make. I have pictured the end and that has a 3/8ths square drive in it for a long T handle. If you can't make something I can supply the parts numbers I had to use an impact driver and largish hammer to remove them (but the special tool and a torque wrench for putting back together).
Do use new copper washers on the damper rod bolt. I have read some use RTV silicon as well but I never have and all has been OK.

When I had the forks rechromed on one of the 1100's did use new bottom bushes, but reused the old top ones. The other 1100, I recently replaced the fork seals on, I have left the bushes. I think the stanchions will need to be rechromed in the near future so just reused the bushes as it'll probably come apart again this or next winter.
On my set of forks the stanchion removed without any impact on the top bush as mentioned above. I think on some models (the 650?) pulling the stanchion out removed the seal (or was that my SV650?). Can'r remember but on the 2 1100's I just did it wasn't an issue.

You can get the old oil seals out with a screwdriver etc as mentioned (which I have always done before) but this time I bought this tool from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1
It's only £6.50 (was £8 when I got it a couple of months ago!) and with a little bit of plastic on the lever point it whipped them out quicker and with less fuss than the made tools of old and with no marks, so really for that price I would recommend it (and who doesn't like new tools?).

I did use Suzuki fork seals.

Reassembly, make sure all goes back in the correct order to save having to take them art again (speaking from experience but I am not going to admit anything...). The damper rod has a sort of cup thing (Oil Lock Piece on the fiche) on the bottom and above that sits 1 washer and 2 leaf springs - they go in the order leaf, washer, leaf. The progressive spring goes in with the tighter coils at the top (on my 2nd 1100, one was one way and they other side was the other way!).

I used Motul 15w oil
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1
which was actually cheaper from my local bike shop.

227ml each leg, but I always use the air gap method. With forks assembled but no spring in, the air gap is 221mm. I use a piece of steel rod with some tap round at 221mm.

Hope that helps.

UB

Thanks to everyone for the info, sound advice.
Bike has only done 35,000 and not raced or anything, so I can live with it at the mo, and if bushes can be left in place, they will be. MoT fast approaching, so might use Fossie's trick to tide me over...
Robinson's info definitely seems a bit sketchy, the Haynes book shows more parts, I think I've attached it at the bottom...but that might not have worked
The proper tool looks like money well spent, and you can't ever have too many new tools. Will need to rechrome the stanchions on the "doerupper" as well when I get there, so will be used again for sure.

Robinsons looks OK to me:
https://www.robinsonsfoundry.co.uk/shop ... 00szforksz

You weren't looking in the GSX section instead of the Katana section so having issues?

That Haynes manual shows some GSX1100(ESD?) forks that have the extra adjustment at the bottom (rebound or compression can't remember!). It shows 2 extra washers each side of the fork seal that the Katana doesn't have, it you look at the Robinsons link above. As Blix says the "piston, part number 51121-49200" are £17 each but don't forget the 10% discount at Robinsons (PM me if you need deals as haven't added to the members section of the website).

UB

Hmm, the Robinson's one doesn't seem to show an upper bush, that's why I thought the handwritten 39 was it...but think this is a typo (shoes as part number 16 on Haynes diagram). As Blix said, the part number is the same as the lower leg, so something amiss.
Anyways, thanks for the info, and once mot is out the way, I'll give Robinson's a ring for the parts. I've got my membership number now, so all good.
Thanks all...