Hi Guys, I'm new to the forum but I'd just like to post a message about my experience with changing the front fork seals on my 1050 Tiger. I did a lot of searching for info but it seems very slim on the ground so had to wing it a little. Firstly the fork removal is very straight forward with just the usual two lower fork tree bolts and one upper bolt plus obviously front brake caliper and front wheel removal. Make sure you loosen the top cap first cuz you'll never loosen it after the forks are out without much damage. Once out and the top cap nut is loose it's simply a case of unscrewing the top cap and pulling the outer top section down to reveal the spring space. At this point you'll need a special tool to compress the spring, this tool can be bought off ebay for £16.90 (Laser suspension tool 6353) To compress the spring use the tool and a ratchet strap, once you compress the spring you can then see the nut just under the top fork cap and this needs to be loosened and then the top cap can be screwed off. All very simple and very similar to most upside down forks. Where it gets confusing is the amount of oil to put in the forks before the rebuild. Triumph give two figures 580ml per leg and also 30mm air gap. These are both on the official Triumph data sheets. What I did was to empty each fork leg of oil completely into different containers so as to gauge which triumph figure was correct because the internet says one or both are wrong. So I can confirm both fork legs contain 580ml of oil however the air gap was much more than 30mm's (sorry I didn't measure what it actually was) but looking at the gap i'm guessing it'd be more like 100mm at least. I totally believe if you set the oil level at 30mm you'll blow the seals in no time at all !!! Basically just make sure you put 580mls of 10 weight fork oil back in each fork leg and you'll be OK. The seal kit I bought again off ebay was excellent quality and contained dust seals, fork oil seals and both sets of internal fork bushes. Triumph Tiger 1050 07-11 Fork Seals Dust Seals Bushes Suspension Kit ebay number 232067031892 If anyone has any questions I'll try and help however I'm no expert Cheers Carl
130mm ? 30mm definitely sound a bit low ! Having said that my fireblade is about 60-70mm IIRC. Good to get a job finished successfully, thanks for sharing "!
Could you tell me what year your tiger is? I have en '05 speed triple and need to do the seals - i am competent and need to dodge the excessive dealership costs at the moment... Like you say, information seems pretty thin online. did you use a damper rod holding tool to undo the bolt in the bottom of the fork? Can anyone confirm the forks are the same? Thanks, Lewis
hi , I'm wondering what the spec of the seals are , would you have a link I could have a look at , very much a newbie to Triumphs , Thanks
The type that are needed , the diameter . I don't do a lot of the repair work myself , certainly not forks .Just with the lockdown im trying to source them myself and I obviously don't want to get the wrong ones
World of triumph.com has the part numbers by year or vin number then get them cheaper else where. Up to vin 438380 oil level is 74mm and amount 581cc from vin 438381 81mm amont 579cc tiger sport different again