fork oil leak
 

Hi folks, haven't posted in a while but need some advice now. I recently noticed one of my fork tubes is leaking oil. I checked out the manual and I suspect this repair is not a project I want to mess with, for several reasons. Has anyone here ever disassembled and reassembled their forks to change oil, seals, etc.? It looks like a special tools and equipment project and might best be left to the pros. Any ideas on the approximate cost if I take it to a shop?
Any and all comments appreciated.
Ron

Just my opinion. Take the forks to some one who does it for a living. Once took forks to a dealer and had new seals installed. Put the forks back on the bike and happily road away.

I've never done this myself. Never had to. However, my daughter does hers and they are bit more complicated that a GZ250.

I stopped in at the nearest Suzuki service dealer today to inquire about my fork issue. They were somewhat helpful and encouraging. I could tell they don't deal much with little bikes however. The man I spoke with looked at the bike and was surprised there was no drain plug for the fork oil. He did mention he had seen much worse that were still on the road. BTW if anyone is interested, the going rate for labor at that shop in League City, TX is $75/hr + parts, etc. Makes me want to rethink doing it myself. I did get some good free advice though.

" I did get some good free advice though"

Like?

Still cheaper there. Down here in Sunnyvale/Santa Clara California... it's around $85+ (GP Sport, Bike World, and Santa Clara Cycle).

The free advice, not much really, was that adding small amounts of oil to replace what was lost could delay my having to pull the fork and do a major overhaul. I was also told that as long as I didn't notice any uneven travel in the suspension, the dampers were still working and no damage has occurred. I bought a heavier oil to use, hoping the leak will stop or slow done, until I can do a proper repair.

Re: fork oil leak
 

I have the same problem with a GZ250 I've been nursing back to running condition, and bought new fork seals and wipers to replace the old ones.

There is also a small copper gasket at the bottom bolt which I'll have to pick up, but the really frustrating thing just now is that there is some sort of special tool which I don't think the service manual mentions for the step 'Remove the inner tube from the outer tube'. It looks like there's some sort of locking piece at the bottom of the tube which needs to be removed before you can separate the inner and outer tubes... or maybe I'm just being a sissy and need to muscle them apart... but I'm not really in the mood to buy new forks if I destroy the old ones so I was wondering if anyone has experience with this bit?

Re: fork oil leak
 

Nevermind. No special parts needed, just some caveman action. You basically have to sort of ram the inner and outer tubes apart numerous times which gradually will work out the fork seal, then the whole thing will separate easily. Der.

Re: fork oil leak
 

I have replaced the seals and oil on ninja 250 forks it was a trip but really its not that hard. The the problems i ran into is that im weak and you had to pull them apart pretty hard , but it came apart . and i had to buy pvc pipe to use in place of the special tool to get the fork seals back in.

is crapy seals pretty common on the gz250 i just bought one yesterday and it looks like the need to be replaced