'92 KDX forks fixable?

[ThePitBull]

'92 KDX fork rebuild?
Okay, here's the deal, my bike sat over the winter and pissed all its fork oil over the oil seals. Not a problem, I think, I'll just put in new seals!
Well I got the new seals and follow the manual for removal, now comes the rebuild, uh oh, what is this inner and outer bushing deal?
I now have 1 fork apart, unable to get the bushing back into the lower fork. Dealer says tool to seat it is $200+.
I found a shop that will use their tool and just pop the bushing and oil seal back in for $20 or so.
Do I go ahead and strip the other fork down and have them do both?(with new seals) The kicker is I leave Fri morning for a long weekend camping/riding trip, so time is short. How important is replacing the bushing? Dealer says they won't replace seals without both inner/outer bushing also replaced.
Am I hosed???
Thanks,
ThePitBull

 

[David Trustrum]

Um, I’m not sure why you are having trouble putting the bushing back in. With the forkleg inside the slider the forkleg bush is already in so just the upper bush to slide down the leg into the top of the slider.

If you are real careful you could use a punch to tap the bush in (with the washer on top of it?) little bit at a time careful not to dent the leg (wrap tape around to be sure). If you want to make a tool find a piece of tube that fits over the forkleg (pushed right in) & use that to tap on pushing the bush in.

Then use a piece of the right size conduit to do the same for the seal (outer area of seal). Only needs to be 18” long. $200 tool, ha!

The bushes wear so if a bit sloppy will promote seal wear. You can replace, or if time is tight you can space the lower bush with (don’t laugh) a small bit of tape in the groove then put the bush back over it. Best to fit new if you can of course.

Fitting the seals over the sharp forkleg ends is a bit scary so I use thin tape over the edge & lots of grease.

 

[fishhead]

I sure would like to see that 200 buck tool! It must really be the cats meow