Zongshen 200GY-2: Fork Service at 41,922 Miles

[SpudRider]

The weather was unseasonably warm this week, so I seized the opportunity to service the forks on my Zong, which has almost 42,000 miles on the odometer. The wind was blowing, the day was short, and the job was messy, so I didn't take many photographs. However, I will supplement this thread with photographs borrowed from other sources.

As far as I know, no one else has ever posted a thread regarding servicing the Zongshen 200GY-2 forks, so I was heading into unfamiliar territory. My fork oil seals were leaking, so I wanted to replace the fork oil seals and the dust wipers when I changed the fork oil. However, the last time I checked, Zongshen America did not sell fork oil seals. :roll: Therefore, I measured the fork diameter, and the dimensions of the dust wipers, in an effort to determine the correct replacement seals. Based upon my measurements, I was pretty sure my Zong employed 37x50x11mm oil seals. Therefore, before I began the job, I ordered fork oil seals and dust wipers for the '09 Honda CRF150R. After separating the fork tubes, I was pleased to discover I had ordered the correct parts.

The Zongshen Service Manual for my bike is almost complete fiction regarding the motorcycle's forks. :roll: I did not know the correct fork oil, or the correct volume of fork oil to use as a replacement. :( Therefore, I decided to measure the depth of the fork oil before I disassembled the forks, and also to measure the fork oil I drained from the forks.

After doing quite a bit of research, I decided I would use Mobile1 Synthetic ATF for my new fork oil. I also surmised that each fork would probably require 200ml of fork oil. I had no idea what the fork oil level would be once I opened the forks. :roll:

After removing the left fork, I unscrewed the fork cap. After lowering the outer fork tube, I separated the fork cap from the damping rod by using a 12mm wrench to hold the damping rod nut, and a crescent wrench to unscrew the fork cap. The Zongshen factory used a lot of red loctite to glue the fork cap to the damping rod! 8O Therefore, I needed to use a large crescent wrench, and lots of effort to separate the fork cap from the damping rod. :roll:

Once the fork cap was off, I pushed down on the preload spacer, and removed the washer that keeps the damping rod extended. I was then able to remove the preload spacer, and the preload spacer bushing. Reaching in with a small hook, I removed the fork spring, and placed it on a clean towel with the other parts. Allowing the outer fork tube to collapse, I looked inside the fork to measure the oil level. I was surprised to discover the oil was 11.5-inches below the upper edge of the inner fork tube. 8O

Pushing the damping rod repeatedly, I drained all the oil from the fork, and measured 200ml of dirty fork oil. Laying the fork horizontally on a table, I lowered the dust wiper, and removed the fork seal retaining clip. I expected to encounter resistance as I disassembled the fork tubes, but I was surprised when the inner fork tube separated easily from the outer fork tube, leaving the oil seal, and all the bushings inside the outer fork tube! :?

Laying the inner fork tube aside on a clean cloth, I examined the outer fork tube. I pried the old oil seal from the outer fork tube with a flat blade screwdriver, being careful not to scratch the surface of the tube. Then I removed the oil seal washer, and cleaned the inside of the outer fork tube.



I examined the inner fork bushing, which was placed at the bottom end of the outer fork tube, just past the fork seal washer. The outer fork bushing appeared to be located about half way down the interior of the outer fork tube, so I could not inspect it.

Having completed every possible task with the outer fork tube, I now inspected the inner fork tube and the internal parts I had removed from the fork. As expected, the fork components were similar to those in photographs I had encountered earlier, during my research.



The bushing on the preload spacer was in good condition, and the fork spring also appeared to be in good shape. I did not remove the cartridge from my fork, as forum member David3921 did in the following photograph.



Having measured the oil level, and the drained oil I had collected, I compared the old oil seals and dust wipers to my new replacement parts. So far, all was well, so I cleaned the fork parts before I started to rebuild the first fork.

Spud