1981 Honda CM400 Custom - How do you change the Fork Seals and is there any special tools needed?

Answer 1

Your best bet is to obtain a service manual for this job. There are two ways depending on whether you wish to just do the seals or rebuild the fork assy. You can leave the forks on the bike. Remove the dust seal on the slider assy and you will need a circlip plier set to remove the circlip on the top of each fork beneath the dust seal. Remove the front wheel and the allan bolt up inside the bottom of the fork on each side. Drain all the oil from the forks with the drain bolt on the lower fork, and then pull the slider hard up and down until it releases from the upper fork. You will now has access to the fork seal and will need a remover to get this out properly.There are parts that need to be checked for wear such as the slider bushings and guide bushings. This is where the shop manual is necessary. You will need to use some loctite on the Allen bolts when you reassemble the slider back onto the fork. The amount of oil will be specified and it is important to stick to this amount closely to avoid overfilling. The FSM from Honda usually specifies ATF fluid from a car of 15 or 20 weight oil.This is a rough guideline only and I do recommend a service manual.