The Little Bordertown Service Center

 

Falcon County Park

My Amazon order finally arrived at the post office.

I had ordered an air filter for the generator and seals for the Honda forks.

Lets do the air filter first.

Easy to get to, awkward to remove.

Yep, looks like it needed changing.

We will do the fork seals the next day.  It’s gonna be a process.

Okay, front wheel off.

The problem would be moving the retaining clip that holds the seal in place.

You need a special tool that looks like this.

I don’t have one with me.

 

After several failed attempts by other means, I finally devised this method.

Nails in the little holes, a clamp to hold the nails in place, while pressing down on the heads of the nails with one hand I squeezed the nails together with pliers in my other hand.

Then with my third hand I levered a small screwdriver under the retaining ring and worked it free.

Whew!

Now I could disassemble the fork tube, remove the old seal, install the new seal and struggle getting the retaining clip in by the same process as getting it out.  About an hour and a half expired by the time I got the fork tube together.  Now to do the other tube.  It took about half as long since I already had figured out the solution.  By now I was worn out.  A peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch revived me.  Back out in the shop I fitted the fork tubes back onto Gracie.  My back was sore from bending over and being down on my knees.  Hot and tired I quit, took an ibuprofen and went for a shower.  

But something wasn’t right.  The front wheel wasn’t spinning as free as it should.  Why?

I couldn’t let it go thinking about it all afternoon.  Late in the afternoon I was back out in the shop.  I thought what might be wrong.  I took the front wheel off again.  This time I made sure the two dog ears on the speedometer drive gear were properly engaged in their slots.  Put the wheel back on and it spun like it should.  Problem solved.  I rewarded myself with another ibuprofen.   

The next day, surprisingly not too stiff and sore, I put in 140 ml of automatic transmission fluid in each tube.  Project done.  I went for a ride.  Bonus feature is that I eliminated the annoying squeal in the front brake shoes in the process.  Dirt in there most likely.

My shop assistant.  I couldn’t deal with my furry shop assistant being outside while I worked on this.

She stayed in the office.

I took her for a walk after a cup of tea.