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leaky forks

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 8:48 pm
by mickmaul
Hi

i wonder if anyone can offer some advise

Last year in July when I had the bike MOT'd, it passed but I had an advisory telling me there was misting top of the front forks.

For reasons I won't bore you with, I never got round to having them looked at. Yesterday bike went straight through the MOT with no comment about the forks.

I mentioned this to the tester, me thinking mayby I had lost all the Fork oil, he said no, seals were good and as the forks were damping, there was no problem.

Then today riding back from work, the right hand had started weeping oil, which was quite noticable.

Has anyone experienced something similar, and if the seals need replacing is it an expensive job

Many thanksk

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 8:51 pm
by slparry
bit of grit in the seal?

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:09 pm
by Al
lift the dust caps up and run a very thin feeler gauge around the outside of the seal, it may reseat the seal or remove any grit. It didn`t work for mine having them done this week, £40 for the seals etc from Sherlocks and 30 for labour and oil.

Al.

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:11 pm
by Dai wiskers
Mine does it if it's been parked up for a couple of weeks wipe it after 30 or so miles and it stays dry
Bloody Harley does it too

Re: leaky forks

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 5:55 am
by Corvus
mickmaul wrote:Hi


I mentioned this to the tester, me thinking mayby I had lost all the Fork oil, he said no, seals were good and as the forks were damping, there was no problem.
Hi

On a Telelever system the fork don't damp. The oil is purely for lubrication. As a design principle, if they could find a way to eliminate the oil they would.

So, on a telelever system, to deduce the presence of oil in the forks by the fact the front suspension is being damped is wrong, in my view.

Cheers

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:04 am
by Corvus
My R1200R weeped oil from one of the fork legs from brand new.

It looked like a normal oil seal leak. But upon closer inspection I could see that it was weeping ever so lightly from under the top cap, which attaches to the yoke. The oil film on the stanchion was so thin it was barely visible. It then built up around the dust seal and gave the appearance that the fork seal was leaking.

The r1100s legs attach to the yoke differently though, so I doubt the same thing could happen.

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 3:52 pm
by mickmaul
Gentlemen, Thanks very much for the input, the dust caps seem really tight, do they just prise off ? ta