Fork Seals

I have finally gotten around to changing fork seals on my 82 XJ650 Maxim. I took the first one apart and it only had 110ml of fork oil in it and no air pressure. I'm guessing with that little oil that the fork was just relying on the spring the whole time. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like when I get them working properly. I had a tough time getting the old seal out but finally got it. I have a couple of questions. On putting these back together, do I need to use loctite on any of the bolts like the hex cylinder bolt in the bottom, fender bolts, caliper bolt, etc? Also, when I screw the air valve into the cap bolt, do I need any RTV on the threads? I know it has an o-ring but just curious if anything else was needed.

Thanks,
Stacy

 

Medium strength threadlock on the Damper rod bolt.

You can choose to also use it on the fender and caliper mounting bolts.

The air valve has an o-ring that seals it. No RTV should be used anywhere on the forks.

Have you read the how-to thread for rebuilding your forks?

 

Yes, the one written by Gamuru is the one I'm using as my guide. It just didn't mention anything about loctite on the bolts so I figured I'd ask to make sure. Unless it was mentioned later in the thread and I missed it.

 

I don't think it was mentioned. Write-ups here are generally meant to suppliment the service manual.

 

I've got a factory service manual but didn't look there till you just mentioned it. It says to use Loctite stud n bearing mount (red) which would probably be the high strength stuff. I don't think I want to do that. I'll stick with the blue medium strength stuff. Thanks.

 

do not use the red stuff you have to snap bolts to remove nuts with that stuff.

 

You have to heat the compound to 400ºF to remove it. Sometimes it'll budge at a lower temperature.