Leaking front fork oil seal!

[roadrunner]

I?ve had a little trouble recently with the right hand fork seal leaking (the one without the DDC wiring.
It started last year and was quite bad, splashing droplets of oil onto the belly pan. The bike had only done about 10,000 miles and I wondered how it could leak, when all the seal does is go up and down?
So I made a seal scraper, you may have seen them advertised on the internet. Anyway I made my own from a Chinese takeaway clear plastic container.
I popped out the scraper seal and inserted my homemade scraper. I worked it around the seal, pulling it down as I went along. The idea is to pull any dead flies and crap from around the seal lip. Anyway, this done and the leak was almost cured! Just had a bit of an oil film showing on the chrome stansion.
I read recently on the Gen 4 section a post put on by JamieMac about realignment of the forks.
I?ll not go into the procedure here again, but I did what he suggested. I?ve had a couple of very short test rides and guess what? The forks appear to be completely dry of oil! I know it?s early days but we will see if the forks stay dry.
I was going to replace the seal myself. I had purchased a new seal. Had started to make a fork spring compressor tool and read up on how to do the job.
I also had purchased some new fork internals (cheap) as spares, should I ever need them. These have come in very handy as I?ve dismantled them to get a feel for the upcoming job.

Anyway, I?m still struggling with my knee and find it difficult to get down to the wheel and fork area.
I will report back and let you know how, or if this ?fix? works.


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[roadrunner]

I think I have to expand on the post that JamieMac put up, as try as I may, I can?t find it now. Hope I?ve got the author of it correct!
Anyway I?ll briefly go through the procedure.
Place the bike on a rear paddock stand.
Slacken top yoke nut. Slacken lower yoke pinch bolts. Slacken right side axle pinch bolts. Slacken wheel spindle. In addition I slackened the front mudguard fixings and front calliper bolts.
Obviously do not slacken the top yoke pinch bolts. Turn on ignition.
Then climb aboard, place hands on the top yoke, not the handlebars! Put your weight over the front end and bounce up and down several times to allow everything to position themselves. Carefully dismount and start to progressively tighten all the bolts etc that were previously slackened to the correct torque settings. I nipped up the top yoke nut first though.
That?s basically it. As I say I?ll keep you posted as to whether it works in the long term. If it doesn?t, then I shall be replacing the seal!


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[JamieMac]

Yep, that?s an accurate description. J

 

[roadrunner]

Well, following on from my little experiment regarding realignment of the front forks, to see if there would be any improvement in the oil leak from the R/H side fork oil seal.
Well, in a word.......YES! I?ve done two or three short runs of 20 or so miles, a couple of runs of 40 or so miles and one yesterday of 150 miles. These runs have been at various speeds, braking gently and in anger. The road surfaces have been normal, ie not very smooth, to terrible. As I said, normal.
Every time I stop I check the chrome stansions and have found them to be absolutely snuff dry!
So has my leak gone for good? I?ll let you know[emoji106]


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[JamieMac]

Glad to hear it... it?s the cause of most fork seal leaks since time began.... the other is the bike sitting over winter and the forks drying out. Bounce them every couple of weeks or just give them a clean after the first run of the year. J