Angela and I are taking the Voyager to Utah this summer, so I thought I’d better get some maintenance done before departure. The right fork has leaked a little since I bought the Voyager last summer, so I thought it might be a good time to do a major fork overhaul.
I did some reading on the Voyager message boards and came across an excellent write-up on fork seal replacement by Rick from NYC. Though he didn’t go so far as to separate the fork slider, his photos and captions were invaluable to me during my process. (Thanks, Rick!) Together with the Voyager manual, I was able to:
- Replace my fork oil seals
- Replace my fork oil dust seals
- Replace my fork oil
- Generally clean and examine my forks’ innards
I have no desire to restate the process both Rick and the manual outline for working on the forks.
HOWEVER …
I do want to add a couple things that I feel will make your time doing this work easier, if it so happens you’re interested in tearing into your forks. Why would you do that, by the way? Because my local shop wanted $160.00 just to remove the fork oil seals and install new ones! That didn’t include anything else, like the time it takes to remove the forks themselves or to reinstall them–I would still have had to do that myself. The charge for the shop doing everything I did this weekend was well over $400.00–not including parts. Ugh!
But I digress.
Trick #1: Removal of Top Plug on Fork
Go to your local hardware store and buy a decent bearing puller. It doesn’t have to be a big one. Mine was the smallest available at a local farm store. Expect to pay at least twenty bucks for one of these.
Here’s how I clamped the puller to the fork and triple clamp:
Notice I’ve clamped the fork top (not too hard) into the bottom triple clamp. Then I hooked the bearing puller’s arms under the triple clamp and tightened the puller’s bolt down against the detent in the top plug. This allows me to compress the top plug without the help of another person.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
Um, be sure to wear eye protection when you use the bearing puller. There is no guarantee that the puller arms won’t slip off the triple clamp while under tension. I held the arms in place and tightened the bearing puller bolt with a ratchet wrench. That made me feel safer, but I still kept my face away from the top plug’s line of fire just in case the puller happened to slip off while I was tightening it.
Trick # 2: Use Dental Tool to Remove Circle Clip
Once the top plug is below the circle clip which retains it, it’s really easy to remove if you happen to have a cheap-o plaque removal tool from your local drug store. I used the hooked metal end to carefully pop out the circle clip that holds the top plug in place.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
Be sure to slowly, safely release the compression on the top plug when you go to remove it. I had a friend help. He loosened the bearing puller bolt while I controlled the top plug’s movement with my finger tips. I wore gloves while doing this; the top plug is under a fair amount of pressure from the fork spring beneath it.
Trick #3: Use PVC Pipe as a Driver
This isn’t my idea. I read about it on one of the Voyager forums, but thought it was important and it worked great for me.
Eventually, you’ll find you need to drive the top bushing into its seat before driving the oil seal into place. Use a piece of PVC pipe about as long as the slider plus 6 inches to do this. The pipe should be cut square on both ends. One catch–you’ll need to cut a slit in the PVC pipe from top to bottom so that the pipe will fit over the fork slider. I used my Dremel tool to do this. (I was careful not to allow any bits of PVC into the top of the fork slider. I used a wad of paper towel to seal the top of the slider tube while doing the driving work.) Anyways, just slide the slitted PVC pipe over the fork slider tube so that it rests on top of the large washer (which is directly over the top bushing). Bang the top of the PVC with a rubber mallet until the bushing is fully seated. You can always peek under the washer to judge your progress, by the way.
Once the bushing is in place, just leave the washer over it, remove the PVC pipe and proceed to slide the new oil seal onto the fork slider. Make sure you get the oil seal on right-side-up. Mine had lettering on it, and it was installed letter-side-up. Put the PVC pipe back on and bang the oil seal into place. Please remember that the seal is somewhat fragile and that “bang” really means “carefully tap, but with purpose.”
So there you have it. My first, humble contribution to the Voyager community. Good luck!
