Fork Seal Question.

Gale19XX
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Gale19XX
Edited Date/Time 4/24/2015 10:46am
I have a 2012 Kawasaki KX250F and plan to replace fork seals for the first time. I watched a few videos as well as a few books I bought including Race Tech Suspension bible. I've never taken apart my forks before but just noticed I may have ordered the wrong part. My question: The dust cap on the forks is normally referred to as a "dust cap" in the videos and books I've read. The part I ordered from Rocky Mountain is "Race Tech Fork Dust Seals". Are these fork seals and a "dust cap" all in one, or did I just order a "dust cap" and still need to order seals. I meant to just order Fork seals, not the caps.
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Tpog496
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Tpog496 4/22/2015 11:42am
4/22/2015 11:42am
This may sound dumb but couldn't you just look at it and tell?
Gale19XX
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Gale19XX 4/22/2015 1:57pm
4/22/2015 1:57pm
Tpog496 wrote:
This may sound dumb but couldn't you just look at it and tell?
Nope. Doesn't sound dumb at all because I probably should know. But as you see in my post, I have never changed the seals. And after doing my own research I consider a "cap" a cap and a "seal" a seal. To me, they look like Dust caps but it says right on the bag Race Tech Showa Seal Pair. I now know a dust "cap" and dust "seal" are the same thing and the OEM part numbers are nearly identical and I messed that up. The Fork Seal is FSOS 47 and the Dust Seal is FSDS 47. So "this may sound dumb" but to me I was certain I ordered fork seals, but as they looked like dust seals, I figured I better ask before I go ripping into a job I don't have the correct parts for.
The Vitard Nation 4/23/2015 6:11am
4/23/2015 6:11am
the part you ordered are more commonly referred to as "wipers". those aren the seals. the seals are up above those, a half inch inside the fork. you need to order those. order genuine oem or skf. the "all balls/msr" generic ones absolutely suck.

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Gale19XX
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Gale19XX 4/23/2015 11:42am
4/23/2015 11:42am
The Vitard Nation wrote:
the part you ordered are more commonly referred to as "wipers". those aren the seals. the seals are up above those, a half inch inside the...
the part you ordered are more commonly referred to as "wipers". those aren the seals. the seals are up above those, a half inch inside the fork. you need to order those. order genuine oem or skf. the "all balls/msr" generic ones absolutely suck.
Thank you. That was exactly the type of answer I was looking for. Although, I realized it yesterday. These race tech ones just look much bigger and beefier than my stop dust caps. And since it said "seal" on it I couldn't fathom a seal being that size inside the fork tube (as I've never seen one because I've never took the forks apart) but I got the right ones ordered now. Appreciate the help. Hopefully install goes smoothly.
colson973
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colson973 4/24/2015 10:46am
4/24/2015 10:46am
Its a waste of time to do fork seals and not replace the oil seal and dust seal. The Dust seal does 95% of the dirty work in keeping your oil seals clean and leak free. if your replace the oil seals its 110% worth your time to also replace the dust seals.

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