Fork seals...

I've done a lot of work in the bike during lockdown. All good, useful maintenance (both shocks refurbished by Denz0, new steering bearing, serviced the flappy valve and new fork seals and oil).

I'm off to Italy next week, at last!! So today I took a look over the FD and changed the oil in that. Will post my findings in another post.

While putting the bike away,I noticed oil in the stanchions...a smear of it, on both. I cleaned it off with a tissue and there really wasn't as much as it first looked. BUT...why any oil?!

I can only think of a few things, because both sides had identical smears if oil:

1. I put the seals in upside down (I've done about 500 miles since fitting new seals and oil). Yes, I took time to check the right way up at the time - but I accept I could have ducked up.
2. I over filled will oil - but I'm unclear how tolerant they are to this, I mean, they're not typical forks, so does it matter so much?
3. The seals are wrong/faulty - but that would be a first.

Any ideas?



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A little oil goes a long way....

I wouldn’t worry too much about it, it might settle down and stop. I’m assuming you also replaced the dust caps when you changed your seals.

Just keep wiping it down. At least you know about it.


The first time I knew I had a front shock leaking oils was at the top of the timmeljoch last year. When the residual oil that had pooled on the front link poured onto the exhaust. So much smoke I thought my bike was on fire.

Just wrapped a paper towel around it To soak up the oil, cranked the spring up to max and carried on.

Enjoy your trip to italy


Ian

Ian J Hartley said:

A little oil goes a long way....

I wouldn’t worry too much about it, it might settle down and stop. I’m assuming you also replaced the dust caps when you changed your seals.

Just keep wiping it down. At least you know about it.


The first time I knew I had a front shock leaking oils was at the top of the timmeljoch last year. When the residual oil that had pooled on the front link poured onto the exhaust. So much smoke I thought my bike was on fire.

Just wrapped a paper towel around it To soak up the oil, cranked the spring up to max and carried on.

Enjoy your trip to italy


Ian

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Thanks for the reassurance Ian . Your story made me laugh. I'm hoping not to have quite so much drama

You know what, I didn't replace the dust seals... I might get some new ones before I leave if MW has them in stock. But yes, I'll keep an eye on them.

I'm thinking if I'd fitted them upsidedown, they'd have leaked a lot more in 4-500 miles? I'm going to lift up the dust seals tomorrow and take a look.

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New seals have a smear of grease around the inner lip. It could be that you can see on the the stanchion. Also you did undo the bleed valve on top of the fork leg when you reinserted the stanchions into the sliders so you haven’t pressurised the air inside the forkleg .

Steptoe said:

New seals have a smear of grease around the inner lip. It could be that you can see on the the stanchion. Also you did undo the bleed valve on top of the fork leg when you reinserted the stanchions into the sliders so you haven’t pressurised the air inside the forkleg .

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Thanks for that idea about the grease. I didn't think of that and the weather is a lot warmer now so there is s chance.

Ref the bleed screws. Yea...I had bit of a squirt out of one when I lowered the stanchion in. Lol. BUT... Despite me thinking I did ok with those, it's a good thought so I'm going to check it out this afternoon.

Thanks. I forgot about those screws in my efforts to understand what I was seeing

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Wizards-Online said:

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Click to expand...

I thought it was completely clear I was on about 4 candles?

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Small update on this.

Now back from about 2400 miles in a week. Stanchions seem to be free of oil

The bike has been standing for a few days now as I'm in quarantine (please don't get me started on that one !?@#£&! - a bad joke, but I'm respecting it). But after wiping with bone dry kitchen towels, only the lightest film of road crud came off.

Steptoe, I'm thinking you're right. The grease on the seals must have spread itself around as the weather warmed up. No way I can do those miles and not have oil everywhere if they were upsidedown! Either that or the pressure in them has equalised after blowing out what it needed?

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