Is everything the same on 09+ bikes? My forks have this weird circlip on the outside near the seal.

 

I think you are referring to the clip on the top, in the Step 4 picture?
I have a 2012 and used this write-up and had no issues.
I went with the stock seals, as per Learjet's recommendation. All is well since the rebuild.

 

This one of those jobs that is best to replace in pairs.

 

Got it, do it in pairs.

The 2009+ has a thin steel looking circlip on the outside of the upper fork right near the seal area but on the outside. It may just be a rub ring since it lies where the white plastic ring would go on the 2007 model.

On that 2012, did you find a chunk of dirt or was the seal just bad?

 

My seal was bad, too much abuse from the salt and sand of winter with vastly varying temps, on top of the normal off road abuse.
Had I cleaned them more often, like I do now, I might have just needed new oil and a good cleaning of the seals. You could try pulling the leaker's dust seal and see if a good cleaning will fix it...but seals are cheap and you could probably use new oil anyway.
I'm going to add a seal saver of some sort, when I next change oil.
I know the ring your talking about after looking at my bike...don't remember doing anything with it, other than cleaning the groove out.
It was literally some of the easiest maintenance I've done, despite my nervousness (I've rebuilt and screwed up a few non-rebuildable bicycle shocks) it all went quick and easy.
Wrenching at 9am, riding by 11am.

 

So I pulled down the dust seals and cleaned everything with dustless rag. Then blew it out with compressed air, then wiped up with same rag. The leaky fork seal looked to be bumpy, I suspect debris so I grabbed some old 35mm film negatives and went round and round, cleaned the film, round and round, recleaned everything and blew it out and the seal appears to be setting down on the chrome now. Maybe that was my problem, some junk in the seal.

It is easy to pull down the dust seals on these bikes. Worth a try before starting a full rebuild. I don't know if it will work for me or not, time will tell.

 

Cleaning/scraping the fork(oil) seal after lowering the dust seal usually works for awhile. I did that on my Big Bend off road trip last December...even used my handy-dandy Seal Doctor kit to do the job. It worked for the remainder of the 2-week trip. Once your oil seal(s) start doing this, however, usually it's only a matter of time before a total failure follows, but a quick clean/scrape usually gets you down the road or trail again.

 

Thanks for the write up.

There are some tools used not listed. I see the fork cylinder holder tool in one of the photos. Do you know the part number for that one? I have a 2007 bike, like yours. I see part numbers for similar tools by Kawasaki, but the last 4 digits can vary from bike to bike.

thanks

 

Service manual says about 102 mm oil level. On racetech web site they say about 90 mm. Here i see 95 mm. Why that? In racetech case i assume that springs beeing stiffer, they require a less amount of oil. Am i right?

 

The shorter the air column above the oil results in a stiffer spring rate. It's just another tuning aid.