The Hodaka Club Forum

Now that the forum is not run by Strictly Hodaka anymore I wont feel bad about doing this. I was wondering if anyone has a source for the front wheel seal thats used on the model 93 and others. It is an 18mm ID x 32mm OD x 5mm thick metric seal. I have a used one that has CHO on it and a number 08487, plus the size 18 x 32 x 5. I hate to pay $10.00 plus shipping for this. That's just heck for high for a little seal. That's what some parts people sell these for. If anyone has a part number for a National, CR, etc. seal that works in this application that would be great.
Or possibly someone knows a company that sells this exact seal for a reasonable price. This seal I know should sell for a couple of bucks at the most. I have done a little research and found a national seal that is slightly thicker at 6mm instead of 5mm. I just have not checked to see if it will work on a Hodaka front hub yet. The CHO seal is an all rubber single lip type that you can just push in by hand, nothing fancy. If some other brother in Hodaka could help with this that would be great. Thanks Gentlemen!

Any quality shop that you can get wheel bearings from should be able to source the seals. Advanced Auto, NAPA, Pep Boys, Auto Zone, your local MC shop should all be able to get the seals. call around.

I have all ready given up on trying to find them at auto parts stores. When they ask what they are for, they ask, whats a hodaka? Those seals are an uncommon size I am afraid. That's the problem. Most of the auto stores sell National etc. And those companies don't make that exact seal in that size.

I know that feeling, if they don't have an application to work from they are lost, even if the part is available. I had to dig to find a place to supply steering stem bearings for my Steen, my local Parts Plus store hooked me up when even the bearing houses failed. Sometimes I can get seals thru my Yamaha shop, but you have to get the old school person who can cross reference the size, not go by application. I'll do some looking to see what I can find.

Yes that's it, cross reference by part number and or size. Thanks Brother, I appreciate that

All seals are identified by their size. Even places like NAPA have book references they can use. If someone at the counter can't answer the question without a computer and a make of vehicle, ask them to look it up in the book.

Or, go to a real bearing supply house. They use sizes for reference, not vehicle applications.

Found some on Ebay for $1.97 each plus a little shipping. They are made in Czechoslovakia. They are the correct size too. 18 x 32 x 5mm. That 5mm thickness was the problem. National, SKF, Timken, and CR all had the correct ID and OD but they only had 7mm as the smallest thickness. That 5mm thickness was the problem. Everything is good now guys. Thanks for the help. I just hate to pay $9.87 for a seal that you can get for $1.97 Got to save a buck whenever these days.

Another thing, some of these auto parts places are thieves, what they charge is just ridiculous. NAPA in Uvalde, Texas wanted a crazy price for common metric bearings. The cheapest price they quoted me for a wheel bearing was $12.00. One bearing was close to $20.00, which was for the bigger one used in the cushioned hub. Found all the wheel bearings on an internet bearing house for a couple of bucks apiece. I just could not find that 18 x 32 x5mm seal for the front wheel. Thanks Gentlemen!

I would rather use a cheap seal than a cheep bearing. I would stick with a Japanese or American bearings. ----------Clarence

The bearings were all SKF that I bought on the internet, that's about as good as they come. They were even shielded bearings. They were just sold very reasonable by a low overhead company. The seals available at some of the Hodaka parts companies are just all rubber seals that you can push in by hand. They are very inexpensively made but high in price. Hopefully the Czechoslovakian ones will be better and or double lip with steel spring. Have to wait until they arrive. Nothing wrong with Czech stuff. CZ comes from there, Jawa comes from there, Barum tires that I am using on my 93's are from there. Thanks guys for your comments

Let us know how the seals look when they come in. I hate the $10.00 freight for a $2.00 item.----Clarence

It was $14.84 total for 10 seals including shipping. I am pleased with that deal. Yes, when they come in I will post a pic of them. Thanks Guys.

If you replace the wheel bearings with sealed ones, then the seal is almost a mute point.

And maybe the sealed/prelubed bearings won't last 100K, but a quality sealed brng can be gotten with pocketchange and replaced very easily. It's a win-win-win situation.

Well what I did, was remove the inner shields and pack them with grease very well and the install them with the shielded side out. This will give them more protection from dirt and water and also allow for more grease in them than what they come with. One thing about grease however, In the Fafnir design book they state that they do not recommend a lot of grease in bearings because it causes heat build up. Personally I would rather have a kittle heat build up than not have much grease. Thanks Gentlemen

The sealed bearings just give added protection from water and dirt that will be present around a dirt bike. Like I said previously the seals that we buy from parts suppliers are not any thing special. But they work. and have for fifty years. The bearings that I bought came with shields. They were cheap in price so I bought them. That's it. Thanks guys

Ok Gentlemen and ladies, The Czechoslovakian seals came in today. These seals are for the front wheel bearings. They are a size of 18mm ID x32mm OD x 5mm thickness. I bought ten of them. Including postage the total cost of them was $14.84. That's cheap. That's $1.48 each with the postage included. But they are not cheaply made. As a matter of fact they are the best quality. They have a steel insert inside of them to maintain rigidity and keep their correct OD. They also have a double lip design with one lip having a garter spring around it to maintain sealing pressure on the shaft its sealing. The seals I have bought here in the US from Parts companies have neither of these features. The seals I have bought here for an arm and a leg are just solid rubber with no garter spring and no metal for rigidity. They can be pushed in by your fingers easily and removed just as easily. The CZ seals require pressure to install them into the wheel housing. They fit very snug. The company that sells them on Ebay is Bohemia seal company in Czechoslovakia. They have other seals that I am going to order from them for Hodakas. I am planning on restoring quite a few Hodakas and I need to save a buck wherever. See the pics below.

Zoom up on the pics and you can see the seals in detail.

If you bought these seals from a parts supplier individually you will pay almost $10.00 each plus you will have to pay shipping on top of that. Think about that difference in cost. Thanks Gentlemen.

Do they have a wide variety of seals? Fork seals and motor seals? If you were going to need a quantity of these, buying in bulk would be the way to go.

They have lots of seals, bearings etc. Yes, they say on the literature they sent me, that they give discounts on quantity. But I bought ten for only $1.48 each, that's the good price man. I have not investigated them for fork seals but that I will do sometime. I have been getting fork seals and dust covers on ebay for much cheaper also. The forks that Hodaka used were used on other bikes back in the day. I even remember the forks on some of the Kawasaki like the G31M Centurion were identical to the Hodaka forks.

They have a big variety of seals. I have checked and they have some seals for the rear wheel also. Very reasonably priced just like these. They also have bearings. I have not had a chance to check what they have for fork seals but I will check on that when I can.
Fork seals can be had for much less on Ebay from many sources. Also the fork dust covers. You see these forks were used by many Japanese manufacturers back in the day. I remember the Kawasaki G31M 100cc Centurion and several other Kawasaki and also Suzuki bikes used these same forks years ago. Consequently there are companies that sell seals for them nowadays. Fork seals dust covers for the forks are much more reasonable from other sources on Ebay. I just bought fork seals for $4.50 each on Ebay recently. Also dust covers for about $8.00 each. Much cheaper than what others sell them for. Thanks Gentlemen

After reading this thread, I did some searching and found that there is a seal from a Yamaha outboard that is the same 18x32x5 size. I was able to order 18 of them shipped from a Russian Federation store (seriously,) for $20 including shipping costs. Tool about 2 weeks to get here. Seals appear to be just fine.
These seem to be available all over the Net for quite reasonable pricing.

As far as the 30mm fork dust covers:


Suzuki makes a current production fork dust cover which is a direct replacement for the Ace 100 forks or any of the Hodakas that are using the 30mm forks. These are nice and fresh and best of all are reasonable in price!

Suzuki Part Number: 51173-25010

Should run you under $10 apiece.