I'm looking to replace my lower fork sliders with a pair of matte black ones...question: do the forks have to be removed from the trees to do this? I googled a fork schematic and there are a thousand parts in there...is this a ridiculously complicated job? I can rebuild a chevy small block with my eyes closed but never had a bike fork apart before. thanks in advance!

 

It's not rocket science, but take pictures or have a manual to refer to when reassembling... it's just one step after another in order.

 

You can do it. You can do it without removing the forks and using the slide hammer method to get the lowers off.

Drew

 

It's a lot easier to do it if you remove the forks. Just saying from experience..

It's not hard to disassemble them at all.
Things to Remember:
1) There's a bolt in the bottom that hold the lowers to the internal components
2) You must replace the gaskets inside the top of the lowers, and they're about $10 a pop from Harley
3) The drain plug is in the lower end of the fork, on the back.

Honestly it's a 2 person job the way I did it.. once they were off, and the bolt in the bottom was removed.. it's just a small clip in the top (pops right out with a small screwdriver).. put a padded towel on the grown and have the fork face upright on the towel. Get a buddy to grab the fork and hold it down as hard as he can (the best grip is where the front fender bolts on). While he does this, you grab the top of the fork (where all the springs and stuff are internal), push down as far as you can, and SLAM (emphasized S*L*A*M) it upwards.. you'll break that gasket loose and the internals will slide cleanly from the lowers. It's really easy, and there won't be a spring blasting upwards into your face.

Replacing is a bit more complicated, but still pretty easy the way i did it.. which was just to take a long piece of pipe that fit over the springs, but inside the top of the lower.. again had a buddy hold the lower in place and tell me what's going on.. meanwhile i hit the top of the pipe with a 5lb mallet which got the gasket inside nice and evenly and created a solid seal..then just popped the clip back in, bolted up the bottom bolt in the fork, replaced the drain plug, filled with fluid through the top, and called it a day.

Harley makes a tool to replace the gasket and stuff, but it's expensive and pipe is cheaper.


..oh, and it's 13.4 ounces of Showa Fork Fluid from Harley.