Story about seals.

[Roger]

A seal walks into a club...

^Canadian joke.

My fork seals are weeping like mad and with spring riding, the dirt and grit on the bike sure shows the oil seepage. I decided to pick up some oil and dust seals so that I can redo the front forks. I hit a couple of bad potholes and that didn't help the whole situation.

I dropped by the Triumph dealer here in town. They had the seals, one alternator cover gasket but they didn't have the clutch cover gasket. Parts guy rings it up and I just about had a Code Brown moment when I saw the price on the seals. Dust seals are $16.99 each and the oil seals are $18.99 each. I did a mental "Say what?" and paid.

Those prices have got to be at least double or even triple what they might cost from a seal and bearing supply house. I am going to get the numbers off the seals and ring up another local supplier and get price and availability from them. Let's just see if I can't find these from another supplier other than a dedicated dealership. Not trying to be cheap here but if I'm being hosed on a part that just seems to be overpriced, I'm going to look elsewhere.

Same thing goes for things like Keihin jets or the 25mm ø valve shims. I will go to one of the many Honda dealerships for those parts. I feel that pricing on Triumph bike parts is dictated by the perception of how unique they are, how hyped up Triumph is through marketing and advertising, and the fact that dealers are so few and far between.

I am only talking about seals here but after seeing what Hedge has gone through with his engine case problems, I started looking at pricing on case halves. (Kids, can you say 'equity loan'?) It's no wonder you see fewer young riders taking up riding and you now see more and more fat, rich guys on ridiculous looking machines.

One little piece of good news, while at the dealership, I was rummaging through a discontinued parts bin. Found a Pingel fuel tap for $20.00. Snapped that thing right up. It is a 6111-AH with a 1/4" NPT fitting on it. I will make an adaptor plate for my tank out of a piece of 1/2" aluminium plate I have laying around here. Those Pingel taps are really nice. It just operates so smooth compared to the stock fuel tap.

If and when I find out about alternate sources for seals, I will follow up here. Just have to wait for Monday now.

 

[drlapo]

I experienced the same sticker shock when I purchased a rear wheel seal for $18 from Triumph. the same seal was $4 from a bearing supplier

 

[Roger]

Had some time to head over to 'my favourite bearing supply house' to talk with the two old hands that have probably been there since engines were first put into wagons. The first thing one of them said when they saw the seals was, "That's proprietary. Don't think we can get that".

Sure enough, I was watching as he looked through his cross reference catalog. Lots of seals and alternates referred to for NOK seals. Just not the particular one I showed him. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

I will either use these seals or I just might order a set from All Balls. With currency exchange, shipping and getting ripped off for duties and fees by the courier, it will work out to cost more than the seals from the dealer. The nice thing about the All Balls product is they are supposed to last longer and have less friction.


Go Canucks!

 

[Roger]

I experienced the same sticker shock when I purchased a rear wheel seal for $18 from Triumph. the same seal was $4 from a bearing supplier

That's fortunate. My guess is that the wheel seals are just more common. I need to figure out who manufactures the Bonneville forks if I want to try and pursue this any more.

 

[Kirkus51]

My brother has some kind of tool that you can slide down the tubes and sort of clean and realign the seals. He's tried it on a couple of his his bikes and he said it worked great. sone kind of plastic thingy ma bob.

 

[Roger]

I know the tool you are talking about. I have seen it somewhere on the web. It's a very thin plastic hook made from a sheet of plastic and like you said, it seats the seal as it pulls the dirt out from under it. My problem is a bit different. The seals have actually shifted or popped out slightly. I need to change the fork oil anyhow so I'm just going to change them out.