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Anyone have any tips for doing the fork seals on an E series?

Nothing special. Typical standard forks. It helps if you have a parts washer and air tools. A 3/8 impact on the lower bolt that holds it all together makes easy work of it.

USE WITH CAUTION!

A trick I learned for conventional forks is to remove the seal retainer clip, then put compressed air into the fork through the bleeder hole to push the seal out. Then you don't have to disassemble them. If the seals stick then pour hot water over the seals to soften the rubber and try again.

Hold a rag over the seal so oil does not go flying when they come out.

I was going to replace the fork seals on an 81 MX 100, but could not disassemble them and they wouldn't come out with air pressure. So I used a thin plastic seal cleaner tool to clean the seals, and filled with fresh oil. No more leaks. I was amazed!

Great tip. You mean the bleeder on the top of the fork tube and not the drain on the bottom, correct?

It is 10mm or 14mm on the base valve (compression adjuster assembly).

If that is all you want to do is replace the seals and not clean them out, I have used two of those very sharp sheet rock screws. Tap them into the seal with a hammer then screw them in a little. Use some side cutters or pliers to grip the screw and lift the seal out of its seat.

Yup, all I want to do is replace the fork seals and oil.

You won't be able to clean out all the gunk and residue if you don't separate the tubes.

Jason wrote:You won't be able to clean out all the gunk and residue if you don't separate the tubes.

Crap!

It's not that hard.

gsa102 wrote:USE WITH CAUTION!

A trick I learned for conventional forks is to remove the seal retainer clip, then put compressed air into the fork through the bleeder hole to push the seal out. Then you don't have to disassemble them. If the seals stick then pour hot water over the seals to soften the rubber and try again.

Okay I did this and it worked, great.
But now how do I get the correct amount of oil back in the fork tube?
I lost oil from the leaking seal and using this method.

Remove top cap, dump out oil by cycling the shock upside down over a bucket, remove spring.

Use air impact tool to loosen bolt on bottom of shock using short high speed bursts.

Remove dust seal from fork body. Remove circlip. Hammer fork tubes from fork body by forcefully extending shocks with a slide hammer type of motion.

Everything should be obvious at that point.

As far as the oil, you need a fork oil tool.

A good tip when taking seals out. Is to heat the outer tubes up so the seals come out easier.

mud99 wrote:As far as the oil, you need a fork oil tool.

no you don't.
need a syringe, some tubing and a straw...