All Balls Or OEM Fork seal kit

[tomas65]

Getting ready to do a fork rebuild on my 02 Gl1800 trike. Big difference in price between All Balls kit & Honda OEM. My trike kit has the 6.5 easy steer rake kit also. Is Honda kit worth the extra $48?

[AZgl1800]

stick with the All Balls kit, it is tapered Timken bearings, OEM is ball bearings and they don't hold up well.

[DaveO430]

They look to me like the same parts, I have used both, so save some money.

[Steve F]

I've heard stories either way, but when I had the forks rebuilt, I went with OEM seals and sliders too.

[Viking]

I also went with OEM when I did my front forks. Only because those parts were available when I needed them, and All Balls would have taken a week to ten days to get. OEM are excellent parts, but if the All Balls are readily available and $50 less for the kit, I think I might go with them. They do have a good reputation, but that could also just be for their bearings.

[Ghostman]

Ive used both. At last rebuild I used All Balls and have had no issues whatever. To me either or works best.

[tomas65]

Ive used both. At last rebuild I used All Balls and have had no issues whatever. To me either or works best.

How long you have them in? We're the All Balls just as easy to install as OEM? I've read some say the bushings on All Balls were triple coated and a bit harder to slide forks over

[Ghostman]

Ive had them in about 4 years now and installing them was like installing the factory parts. I didnt notice any difference between the factory and the All Balls kit except the All Balls was more reasonably priced.

[tfdeputydawg]

stick with the All Balls kit, it is tapered Timken bearings, OEM is ball bearings and they don't hold up well.

Fork rebuild does not normally include bearings

[redbug]

Just watched a video on the ez steer system and they use tapered bearings in there builds. Maybe get a hold of them and see what is working best on there units.

[GoldWingrGreg]

Getting ready to do a fork rebuild on my 02 Gl1800 trike. Big difference in price between All Balls kit & Honda OEM. My trike kit has the 6.5 easy steer rake kit also. Is Honda kit worth the extra $48?

Your Easy-Steer triple tree most likely came with All-Ball tapered bearings. With a 6.5 rack, and mileage greater then 20k on the bearings, you'll probably find heavy brinelling on the bearing races. Most will replace them with All-Ball bearings. Unfortunately, they are made from Chinese steel and expecting longer life is expecting to much. If you go to your trike builders web page, and look up Easy-Steer installation instructions, there you will find bearing torque. On trikes it is usually between 30-35 ft/lbs on the bearings.

[GoldWingrGreg]

Getting ready to do a fork rebuild on my 02 Gl1800 trike. Big difference in price between All Balls kit & Honda OEM. My trike kit has the 6.5 easy steer rake kit also. Is Honda kit worth the extra $48?

Your Easy-Steer triple tree most likely came with All-Ball tapered bearings. With a 6.5 rake, and mileage greater then 20k on the bearings, you'll probably find heavy brinelling on the bearing races. Most will replace them with All-Ball bearings. Unfortunately, they are made from Chinese steel and expecting longer life is expecting to much. If you go to your trike builders web page, and look up Easy-Steer installation instructions (or whatever name they use for their version of their easy-steer), there you will find bearing torque specs. On trikes it is usually between 30-35 ft/lbs on the bearings.