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New Rider From Kansas (With Questions)

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fork seals
2K views 44 replies 6 participants last post by  dirtrack650 
#1 ·
Hey guys (and gals), my name is Levi and I'm currently a student in Northwestern Kansas. I recently picked up my first bike in the form of a 2003 Vulcan. I've had about a month of riding experience and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Since this is my first experience with motorcycles, I'm not familiar with typical repairs and/or maintenance, but that's why I'm here!

I've recently discovered a fork seal leak and have been looking all over the forum for information on fixing it and it seems that a 38x52x11mm seal will work, however whenever I go to eBay or other related sites, they say that this size will only fit 1986-2002 Vulcans whereas a set of 43x55x11mm seals will fit my '03. Any help and clarification would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. Thankfully I've got some buddies who also have Vulcans who do their own repairs to help me, however, theirs are models from the 80's and 90's so I'm still not sure about the seals.
 
#2 ·
Hello and welcome,

The bikes are basically identical throughout the 21 yr run except for some minor options. The forks I don’t believe are one that is changed. I suggest going to a site like partzilla.com or kawasakipartshouse.com and looking up the part by your bike’s year and then use that part number to shop around.
 
#3 ·
Welcome to the machine!

I replaced the seals on my 03 and didn't have any trouble with part numbers. As mm said, they're all the same for most parts.

eBay has your seals cheapest.

You'll want to drain the oil and heat the socket head screws in the lower fork legs because thread locker was used. Those screw heads are metric, so don't use SAE Allen wrenches.
 
#4 ·
Awesome info. Checking prices I'm realizing just how much genuine Kawasaki parts are and it hurts to look at as a poor college kid! Thanks for the website recommendations mm, and the tips, Spockster. I'm assuming that I can just use one of the cheaper seals on eBay as long as it fits other Vulcan models then?
 
#6 ·
Welcome! I've had my Vulcan 22yrs, 57k miles, done all the maintenance and mods myself, and now it's my son's.

Always start simple if you're on a budget.

Try cleaning the fork seals first, change the fork oil and use high milage ATF as fork oil to condition the seals (This suggestion might cause a
s😫😣t storm here but several of my Clymer repair manuals suggest ATF and I use it in most of my bikes. My goldwing is 39 years old with OEM seals!). If they still leak, then dive in and tackle the job. It's not terribly hard, but you gotta remove most of the front end so you really need access to a garage or shop. While it's apart, might as well remove the fork tree and grease the head bearings. Use waterproof marine grade grease if you're gonna ride in the rain.

Buy one or DIY from thin plastic
Good luck!

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#7 ·
I used ATF in my forks. Couldn't find fork oil in the right weight. Everything on the shelf was for motocross.

The old whale oil that's in your forks now is going to be the most putrid smelling crap you've ever seen, and it's probably absorbed a lot of moisture.

I don't have a seal driver, just use one of the old seals and a piece of pipe to drive it in. No pipe, no problem, just bump the new seal in evenly, with the old seal laying flat on top.
 
#14 ·
I bookmarked these guys when you posted the plug n play RR a couple weeks back. Trust me if I ever have to change a stator again I’m going a different route. When the first one died I had close to 0 motorcycle knowledge so OEM route seemed like the right route. My thinking was if the stator was original than it was 14yrs old and the idea of possibly another 14 yr out of a $440 part didn’t seem like a terrible bargain. Luckily I happened to have funding available, if that happened today with the current economic state, the bike may be sitting a bit.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Here's two dumb questions:

Q: Does the bike absolutely require the stator to run?
A: no. A bike will run fine without a working stator. The stator charges the battery.

Q: Could the bike run on battery alone?
A: yes. I had a trip planned around the Olympic Peninsula (450+ miles) years ago. The stator died before leaving on the trip. I replaced all the lamps with LED, packed a battery charger and did the ride. Camping overnight, the camp host let me plug in and charge the battery.
The only real drain on the battery is starting. Made the trip just fine. Great memories.

Many bikes have stator issues especially when the system is overloaded or connections not maintained. The VN is a troublesome headache because of the engine pull.
Early goldwing owners came up with the poor boy solution by putting a car alternator on the bike. GW's require a engine pull too. At twice the weight😞
 
#21 ·
Here's two dumb questions:

Q: Does the bike absolutely require the stator to run?
A: no. A bike will run fine without a working stator. The stator charges the battery.

Q: Could the bike run on battery alone?
A: yes. I had a trip planned around the Olympic Peninsula (450+ miles) years ago. The stator died before leaving on the trip. I replaced all the lamps with LED, packed a battery charger and did the ride. Camping overnight, the camp host let me plug in and charge the battery.
The only real drain on the battery is starting. Made the trip just fine. Great memories.

Many bikes have stator issues especially when the system is overloaded or connections not maintained. The VN is a troublesome headache because of the engine pull.
Early goldwing owners came up with the poor boy solution by putting a car alternator on the bike. GW's require a engine pull too. At twice the weight😞
Thank you for a thorough and informative answer. It leads me to my next question:

With the advances in battery technology, would it be difficult/expensive/impractical/dangerous to install a much more powerful battery of similar size. There's some bicycles out there that have these massive li-po or li-ion batteries with insane ratings. I almost wonder if someone with a crapped out stator could simply disconnect it from the system and rely on a potent battery? It wouldn't be difficult to come up with a 12v replacement. Thanks again!
 
#24 ·
You can use the largest 12v battery you can fit on the bike, or even tow behind you. The system will only take the amperage it needs. But everything better be protected, because a short circuit will light things up quickly. Instead of a short drawing 250 amps, it's going to be 800 etc, whatever the rating is on the big battery.

I use small car batteries on lawn tractors, they start even on a weak charge.
 
#26 ·
mmart brings up a good point. Most batteries are not designed to have large percentages of their capacity used up. You'd need to be sure to get a 'deep cycle' battery if you wanted longevity.
 
#27 ·
To give even more perspective, I have a 24lb thrust trolling motor for my fishing kayak. This is almost the smallest motor you can get. To run it I have one 12v 65AH deep cycle marine battery. If I was to strictly run the motor at top speed(which is only 3.5kn lol) I’d get about 4-4.5 hours. Good thing is the battery can last hundreds of cycles but it weighs almost 50lbs. I got a SLA type because it was under $100. However, The same power output from a higher end lighter weight lithium battery will hit you with a price tag that makes even the stators look cheap
 
#29 ·
I imagine buying one ready-made would be insanely expensive, but I see no reason why one couldn't assemble their own. I'll text my brother's, he's something of an expert of everything rechargeable. Several of his electric RC helicopters have battery "bricks", which look like they sound.

He also has modified quite a few electric bicycles. I'll see what he thinks and post later.
 
#30 ·
Do you mean assembling your own battery? I’m an engineer so I’m all for solving my own problems , but that seems to be something I’d probably not try to do. Especially in the context of keeping my bike running which has an internal combustion engine.
 
#33 ·
Fair point, but if you had a battery that could reliably power your motorcycle's mechanical needs for weeks, with only several recharges, then I suppose you'd have a "hybrid" bike? I mean, these stators seem like a pain to replace, and since it's a moving part, is more than likely going to fail long before a battery would. Dunno, man. I'm mostly just having the conversation to have the conversation. It's fun to consider the possibilities.
 
#34 ·
I get your point, it’s awesome when you can fix or improve your stuff. But I don’t think that would be a hybrid. The battery would still be powering the spark to ignite the fuel as opposed to running an electric motor. Also the stator is not a moving part. It’s fixed in the cover and the rotor spins with the motor. Lastly, the main thing to consider is that stators aren’t necessarily a high failure rate item, all bikes most likely have the same failure rate, it’s just a few of the engineers at Kawasaki didn’t have enough sense to talk to each other when they designed the engine and the frame and we’re left to deal with their f&@k up. Knowing it’s a b-tch of a job, it’s a good idea to get a quality part and do whatever else you can do while the bike is broken down. You hear horror stories on here because A. It’s a forum and people usually are looking for help. And B. People want to buy $30 eBay or Alibaba stators and then get surprised when they get cooked in under a 1000 miles. Definitely a “buy nice or but twice” scenario.
 
#35 ·
Ah, makes sense. I was beginning to get the impression that these things just failed regularly. I'm just over 9k miles, so maybe I'll have some good luck with her. On a side note, I was wondering, have you ever heard of anyone converting the side covers (or modifying, whichever) with air scoops? I've been thinking of this RR problem, getting too hot, and I'm seriously considering buying a second set of covers to tinker with. More external airflow would have a drastic affect on the temp right there, would it not? Just an idea....
 
#36 ·
Ahh, yet another spot on this bike where the design engineers weren’t sharing ideas. I don’t know about the side covers. Aren’t your legs in front of any potential spots where you could get good air flow? I’d opt to relocate the RR unless you’re changing the exhaust. Since were throwing out catch phrases I’d go with “smarter not harder” for this one haha!
 
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