I have a leaky seal on one of my '04 forks. First question is which way does the seal face. The current one has the spring side facing down (when fork is one the bike).

The second question is what am I missing when I try to loosen the socket bolt from the bottom of the fork to remove the damper. What is happening is the damper is spinning with the bolt. Holding the damper rod at the top doesn't help because it rotates also. There are two holes in the fork tube. Should something go in there to keep the damper from rotating while I loosen the socket bolt? Didn't want to jam a screwdriver in there haphazardly.

Slightly off topic. I made a tool to help remove the fork bolt and lock nut. Seems like this procedure needs 3 hands. I alas, only have two. It is a foot lever that goes into the two holes in the plastic spacer. Using my foot, I can compress the spring to get a wrench on the fork damper while pulling up on the fork bolt. Using two wrenches on the top to loosen the locknut had me stripping the aluminum threads.

 

Screw the cap back on the fork and the spring tension should hold it in place while you break the bolt loose.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

 

No joy. Even compressing the fork with a ratchet strap, the bolt still spins.

 

Have you tried an impact gun?

 

Yeah, I have a cordless dawalt impact. Unfortunately there isn't enough resistance from the bolt to engage the impact, it just spins freely

 

At this point I just drill out the bolt. It might be possible to remove what you have, but since time is money it's cheaper to just install a new bolt.

On a side note: you should leave the entire cartridge together until it's out of the fork. It's actually easier. It needs to be that way for reassembly anyway.

 

I was thinking that would be my next step. Haven't been able to get to it yet, had a computer crash I had to take care of. I hate Norton (not the bike). I dumped their software years ago, but there was over 100 entries in the registry I tried to remove. That didn't work out so well.

 

Anyone have an answer on the seal? I thought I had it in correctly, but the thing started leaking after just a couple hundred miles.
Thanks.

 

Your seal is oriented correctly in the picture, I had a similar problem w/ Race Tech seals went back to honda parts w/ no issues. I also have had problems getting the cartridge bolt out, Once I drilled it out and on the other fork I made a cartridge holding tool out of some pipe and notched it to fit in the top of the cartridge. Race Tech and Motion Pro offer them, not terribly difficult to make you own.

 

The seal will notoriously leak regardless of manufacturer if there is a some crud caught in it... A thin, not sharp plastic sheet is a perfect cleaner... A lot of the times that fixes the leak...

 

Re-tighten the bolt and use an impact to loosen. Try it over and over again and it should release. I had the same problem doing my 954.

 

I've tried that trick a couple times, but the leak would come back. So bad recently it left a small puddle on the garage floor.

 

Thanks for the clarification. These were Honda seals BTW.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a whirl before drilling.

 

That's funny, because RT seals are Honda parts!

 

I tried to tighten the bolt back up but it just wasn't happening. I even put the spring and fork bolt on, then compressed the fork with a ratchet strap. A check with a drill bit showed that the bolt would just spin also. Finally took the fork to the Honda dealer and they had the tool grnell spoke of. Just a couple minutes and the job was done. They didn't even charge me.
Thanks everyone for the tips.