{"id":32318,"date":"2026-02-15T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=32318"},"modified":"2026-02-08T09:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:32:14","slug":"buell-fever-part-6-oingo-boingo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/buell-fever-part-6-oingo-boingo\/","title":{"rendered":"Buell Fever Part 6: Oingo-Boingo"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Gresh<\/h6>\n

I have two motorcycles with upside down forks. Both of these motorcycles have leaking fork seals. Coincidence? I think not. I have no love for USD forks and one of the reasons I wanted a Buell Cyclone was the conventional forks those bikes came with.<\/p>\n

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I don’t care for upside down forks. They seem to leak more than conventional forks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alas, I ended up with a Thunderstorm, which is mostly the same as a Cyclone except for the forks. Mine were leaking, which is not unexpected for a 30-year-old motorcycle.<\/p>\n

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I try to lay out the parts in the order they are removed. Until I kick the cardboard and the bits scatter. This is the fork cap-retainer-plastic spacer-metal washer top of the tube parts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New fork seals were kind of hard to find. I tried contacting the OEM manufacturer, White Power (that name didn’t age well), but I got no response. Through the wonder of the internet, I found a company in England that had the seals.<\/p>\n

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Always tape over ridges so the seal doesn’t get cut or damaged when sliding it into the tube.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The seal installer in action. Sliding the fork tube presses in the fork bushing, a spacer and the seal in one motion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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After pressing the two halves are removed. Next is the seal retaining clip (which is all that holds the forks together).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The seals were reasonably priced at $14 per set, but the shipping was expensive. I bought three sets since the shipping was the same. Now I have enough Buell S2 fork seals for the rest of my life. On a side note: a week after the seals were delivered FedEx sent me a $20 invoice for “fees.” I haven’t paid the fee yet; I’m not sure, it may be a scam. The fees may be re-named tariffs.<\/p>\n

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Without this relief cut the seal installer would smash the seal lip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Buell seal installer. PVC tube machined to fit seal lip then cut in half.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Buell has a large front disc.\u00a0 To remove the wheel, you have to remove the brake caliper. To remove the brake caliper, you have to remove the brake pads and then retract all six of the caliper pistons back inside their respective bores.<\/p>\n

The old Performance Machine brake caliper pistons were pretty crusty, and I didn’t want to push all that mess across the bore seals into the caliper. Removing the brake disc from the wheel allowed enough wiggle room to get things apart.<\/p>\n

The WP forks were super tight in the triple clamps. I used a wedge to expand the fork tube bores and still it was a struggle to slide the forks out. Once out, disassembly was fairly straightforward (although oily) experience.<\/p>\n

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These triple clamps really grip the fork tubes. You almost don’t need pinch bolts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You’ll need to make a seal installer to press the new seals into the forks. I made mine from PVC tubing in the hope of avoiding scratching the sliders. The new seals fit well, and the hardest part was compressing the fork spring while holding the damper rod up with a bent wire and using a third hand fitting the damper rod spring keepers. My Buell shop manual describes this process as a two-man job. And it really is.<\/p>\n

It took a couple days to figure out how to one-man a two-man job. I ended up employing an oxy-acetylene welding cart as a prop to hold the fork.\u00a0 The T-handle on the cart was in a convenient location and height to loop the damper-rod holding wire over and I still had two hands free to compress the spring and slip in the keepers.<\/p>\n

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After the seals are in place the fork spring retainer goes on. Note the wire holding the damper rod and the welding cart holding the fork. This setup leaves both hands free to compress the fork spring and fit the retainers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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More Buell specialty tools. Wire to hold damper rod, wedges to spread triple clamps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Buell manual called for 7-1\/2 weight fork oil. I should have ordered fork oil online, but I didn’t, so I called around and the local Honda shop had some. It’s a 20-mile drive to the Honda shop. The Honda fork oil bottles are confusingly labeled. What looks like 7 weight ended up being 5 weight, but I wanted to get the front end put back together.\u00a0 So I poured a pint of 5 weight into each fork leg. Stay tuned for a follow up report if I can feel any difference between 5 and 7 weight fork oil.<\/p>\n

While the forks were off, I re-greased the steering head bearings. They still had a little grease remaining but thinly applied. I walked out the old stuff and smooshed in fresh grease. That left just the front caliper to clean up.<\/p>\n

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Re -greased steering head bearings. I don’t like the design of the cup under the bottom bearing. It seems like it would hold water. I might bend a drain channel into the low side.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The caliper came apart easily, but the pistons did not. I used to have a big pair of reverse pliers (the jaws expand rather than close when the handles are squeezed).\u00a0 I would use these pliers to grab inside the hollow pistons and pull them out of the caliper. I would, that is, if I could find them.\u00a0\u00a0I spent a few hours looking for the pliers and finally gave up.<\/p>\n

A snap ring Oliver was pressed into service and I managed to get all six pistons out. Performance Machine uses chromed steel pistons and the bit of piston that was exposed to the elements had corroded. Finding new pistons would be an impossible task and a new caliper would cost $600, so I polished the corroded pistons on the buffing wheel.<\/p>\n

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Except for the chromed pistons, the PM caliper is a nice looking unit. Note the piston diameter change to apply evenly distributed wear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Performance Machine caliper back together and waiting on brake pads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve had good luck piston polishing.\u00a0 Yes, they re-corrode, but the section of piston covered with brake fluid doesn’t corrode. I look at it as an ongoing maintenance item rather than a bad part. You’ll have to wait for new brake pads to arrive to see if the caliper leaks in Buell Fever Part 7.<\/p>\n

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By Joe Gresh I have two motorcycles with upside down forks. Both of these motorcycles have leaking fork seals. Coincidence? I think not. I have no love for USD forks and one of the reasons I wanted a Buell Cyclone was the conventional forks those bikes came with. Alas, I ended up with a Thunderstorm, … Continue reading “Buell Fever Part 6: Oingo-Boingo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[654,392,96,452,103,66],"tags":[845,4857,108,104,12],"class_list":["post-32318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-back-in-the-day","category-feel-good-stuff","category-harley","category-harley-davidson","category-joe-gresh","tag-buell","tag-buell-fork-repairs","tag-harley","tag-harley-davidson","tag-joe-gresh"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_2850-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32318"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32351,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32318\/revisions\/32351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}