I mentioned the other day about how I had to do some house work when we got back from our trip. Well, I also found that my front fork on my Kawasaki motorcycle was leaking. I did some reading and watched some youtube videos, and found that the job was something I could do myself, but it looked like it had a few tricky points. I was concerned about taking the bushings out and and pounding in the new bushings and new seals without damaging the bike.
So, I called some shops around my area, and I was told about a place called Eastside Performance Motorcycles in Mesa. It is currently located where the old Laradas Army Surplus used to be. (I can remember buying stuff there as a teenager). They told me it would be a $550-600 dollar job. I then called back later and asked what it would cost if I just brought in the forks and not the entire bike. The cost was half that. So, I decided to do just that.
I got the motorcycle into the garage and up in the air:
Then I started taking it all apart. I have a service manual for the bike so it was pretty easy to do. A lot easier than I was expecting actually. The front tire, brakes and fender all had to come off first. Once I got that all apart here is what things looked like:
Once that was apart I looked at my front brake pads and decided to change them out as well since i H ad it all part. I broke the hairpin that hold the pads in. So that was going to need to be replaced too.
I took the forks to the shop and they said they would be ready later in the day. I asked about the hairpin for my brakes and they had one and gave it to me. That was nice of them.
The next day I picked up the forks and came home and reinstalled everything. Things went pretty well. It took me about 40 minutes to tear it apart and about an hour to put it all back together, check the fluid levels, and do the brakes. So, I would say it was time well spent. And here is the motorcycle afterwards:
Again I am so blessed I had the time, money and ability to do this work.
And I am looking forward to riding it soon (hopefully the heat will let up a little bit).