Is it worth buying the tools and learning to do my own fork rebuilds? Seems like everyone has “a guy” and my “guy” is retiring.
Question for the DIY guys.
- Thread starter arctic cat 4 life
- Start date
Go for it. Youtube will teach ya
It's pretty simple, short answer is yes.
M5
M5
Looks to me like a few special tools and a clean work area I should have no problem. Ill give it a shot, thanks.
$100 worth of tools and oil. Use it once and it pays for itself. Im not messing with valving or anything. just updates on the AER forks, oil changes and seal replacements.
Thanks
Thank you all! Im going to give it a shot. Doing a lot of reading and will be watching videos on it here soon. Any tips for doing KTM’s WP AER forks? Im on a 17 KTM 450.
That does sound like a pain. Any recommendation on a brand for seals? From reading looks like the “high protection” SKF seals are pretty popular.
I run KTM AER forks. I use a 2x4. drilled a 1 1/8"? (i think) hole in it. then cut it in half length wise. Presto. lock it in a vice. I use a heat gun. a map torch would work too. Just don't get to hot. I use SKF seals as thats what all the pro shops use. Prolly a reason why they use them. The only special tool I bought was a 48mm seal driver. Basic tools, and a having a good large adjustable wrench as well as a heat source and you should be fine. Once again watch a few videos and you will see what you need/ dont need to waste money on.
10-4 thanks for the help. I picked up some of the green SKF seals and a 50mm fork cap wrench at the local dealer. Had to order the seal driver. I went with the Maxima 5wt fork oil. The Motorex that KTM recommends was almost 4x the price. The mechanic recommended having a bushing kit on hand just in case so I will most likely order that as well.
The bushings seem to last long long time. I have a trillion billion 300 thou um... miles on mine and only see them go bad if they were run with no oil from a really bad seal leak. Sometimes when you jack hammer the tubes apart it buggers up the edge of the Teflon on the bushings a bit but I just cut off any high spots and they work as good as new. The surface area of the Teflon seems un important as they actually make them with smaller surface area since they did in the good old days of horrible ktm forks...
Thanks for the info on that ill hold off on the bushings for now. Bikes only got 18 hours on it.
Off topic question, do handlebar manufactures have a standard thread pattern for pre-tapped bar ends? I kept the pro bends off my last bike and id like to re use them. I ran a thermobob w/ Timbersled heated bars last season. Id like to try the C3 stat & bars on this one.
I really don't know but my cycra probend with the expandable fittings uses the same bolt size and thread that I use on a set of C3 bars and a set of Protaper bars.
Thanks I'm betting they are the same. Still haven't torn into the forks yet but I will report back when I get it done.
Finally got some time and got my fork seals replaced. Thanks for all the help im glad I took the time to learn it. Not a bad job at all.
