Fork Oil Seal (mkI)

[Tom S]

!¿!£@#§$%() and !&¢*¤¿?!! FORKIN FORKS!!
Finally got all the parts. Everything going OK. Now I can not get the stinkin dust seal in.
No one said anything about this & I did not expect to have any problems with it either. Made up some solid drivers for the oil seal & dust seal. I have about beat this thing to death. Was convinced that I had put something in wrong. But it all looks right. Even tried the old dust seal. No go. If I pull the wire clip that sits just above the oil seal it does go in further, & I am sure it would go all the way if I used the driver instead of just tapping around the sides with a wood dowel & hammer. The oil seal went in fairly easy. I pounded it down several times again after the dust seal would not go. It must be all the way in & measures to be just the distance that the dust seal needs to set.
Wish I had measured how far down into the slider the oil seal was before taking it out. Because now I am not so sure, as it almost looks like it does not set as deep as I remember. Also don't know if there was a second groove that the wire clip might set into, only higher up.
I don't think so, but when things are not working right you start having doubts.

At this point I am ready to just leave the stupid little wire clip out. Those seals ain't goin nowhere.

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

One other question. In this post:
http://www.carpe-tdm.net/ipb/index.php?s=&...post&p=6164
SteveGlover says:
"If the spring has somes coils closer wound at one end (I don't think the 850 has this) then these go at the top."
Hmm-, mine came off the other way 'round. Closer coils at bottom. Manual says nothing, of course.
Pretty sure I did not mix that up. ??
In fact, if, as I suspect, Stink-Foot has this laid out in order, the closer wound coils are at bottom.
His pic:
http://www.students.tut.fi/~launiais/dam...sembly.jpg

I can almost see from my own pic that the coils are wider on top.


Yeah, looking at the spring now, I see that I would be looking at one more coil if the tight wound end was on top.
So, I guess that is not a question, let's call it information.

Not to say that SteveGlover's write up was nothing less than excellent. Helped me. Thanks Steve, wherever you are.
Sometimes things come out ¿?

I have been taking pix of all this & will try to give a full report. There are some differences between what the factory manual says & some of the things that I have read here that agree with the manual & what I am finding. I hope to pass that info on if it will help someone else.
Sometimes it kind of sucks that I seem to have the only TDM for thousands of miles around.

I gotta get this thing on the road as my Buell rear tyre is smoked & new ones are a week out. Dammed if I am takin a car.

I say again:
!¿!£@#§$%() and !&¢*¤¿?!! FORKIN FORKS!!
Anxious in Anchorage, a Professional Crastinator that did not order tyres soon enough.