Fork seal washer order

[jimmyenglish]

Howdy gang. I reckon this question's been asked been asked before but I'm severely perplexed. I'm pretty sure in one of my last fork seal replacement abominations I got the under and over washer around the seal backwards. I have a flat one and a beveled one. Which one goes where?

Thanks in advance!

 

John

[CaseyJ955]

Ill take a shot at this since ive had mine appart more times than I care to recall. The explanation I got is that there is no beveled washer like the ones I fished out of my forks, IIRC that washer is supposed to be flat but distorts as the forks slam against the end of their travel, probably due to tired squishy OEM fork springs. Mine would easily bottom out before I installed Progressive springs. I flattened mine based on that and reassembled. There is a great vid on youtube of a guy replacing seals and bushings on a Venture and his looked flat to my old eyes, I cant link it but its there. I hope someone else chimes in on the "beveled" washer. Also the Yamaha dealer could not see a beveled washer on the fische for the Venture, so based on that I flattened mine, but I have had reoccurring issues with leaks on one side I believe due to issues unrelated to the washers. When my washers came out the were not equally beveled, one side was moreso.

 

Another word on something that I have more certainty of, never ever use aftermarket seals, no matter how spendy and leak proof the marketing suggests they are or you will end up going back in at some point. This is a road I have been down on my Vmax and other machines, the Yamaha seals are as good as it gets to the best of my knowledge and experience. Check the youtube videos and hopefuly that will get you where you want to be. Hope this helps.

[dna9656]

I'm in the process of rebuilding my forks. Look at my post(s) and you'll get quite an education. In my 88 there are THREE washers but Yamaha calls one a SPRING, valve, (it's own P/N (that's the wavy one) and the other two (Flat and Yamaha calls them "washers" share the same P/N and they go one both sides of the SPRING, valve forming a stack. The fork needs these in each tube.

Edited July 30, 2018 by dna9656

[Bob K.]

Both washers are flat. The prevailing opinion is that if either one of these washers is bowed out, it is damaged...likely caused by the forks bottoming out.

 

The oil seal washer (mine is a gold color) goes on top, and the rounded side of the washer--the side with the smoothed edges--goes against the top of the oil seal. The upper spring washer (mine is a silver color) goes underneath the oil seal, and the flat side of the washer (un-smoothed side?) goes against the bottom of the oil seal.

 

Edited August 29, 2018 by Bob K.