Ok. Leaking fork oil. What should i look out for to replace seals.

[troykahack]

Hello my friends. Rode up to Biketoberfest for the last three days and i noticed oily crude around my brake caliber. At first i thought i might have a leaking brake problem but them i found that the upper fork was really grimed up with lube and dirt. That side of the fork looks pretty nasty to say the least. I rode the bike hard for three days and fast up the interstate and really didn't notice a bad ride, but really this is the first time i had done a lot of riding on it since i changed out the driven flange bearings earlier.

Ok, i'm pretty sure i have a fork seal problem. I have the service manual in hand and have read it. What would you suggest i replace while I do this job and anything gotca's i need to look out for. I see it requires some more special bearing tools again. I figure since i have the front wheel off, i should maybe change those bearings since the rear driven flange bearings were bad. All suggestions are welcome before i start my parts order. Just a note. The other fork is not leaking. What are the real dangers in riding the bike in this situation. I'm almost positive that one fork has lost all it's fluid and the other one is fine.

Thanks,

Rory

 

[troykahack]

I wanted to add... i have not seen any fluids on my garage floor, none at all...

 

[GaryRivers67]

My fork seal leaked and I thought I was able to clean it but kept leaking. I ordered the seals, sonic springs, 5w oild and Racetech valves to put in when I changed the seal. There is good information on this site on how to rebuild your forks. It is not difficult if you have the right tools on hand. I inspected the old fork seal and found it had split. If you fork has to much play forward and aft movement you may wish to order and install the teflon coated bushings. Good luck, take pictures to remind yourself how to put things back in the proper order.

 

[Scooter]

There are several thread on the board to help guide you with this procedure. After performing my third one on my bike I decided to add some neoprene fork guards to keep the krap off of the tubes.

How many miles are on your bike? The only reason I ask is if you have more than 75K miles you might want to consider changing the bushings since there is no additional labor involved since everything is apart anyway.

The only special tool I have to do this job is a two inch? PVC pipe coupler that I use to drive in the fork seal. You'll also need a 17mm hex wrench to get the fork caps off. Some people suggest changing both seals at the same time but I've manage to just repair the bad one and have never had any issues doing just that. If the fork fluid has never been changed now is a good time to do it for both sides.

I would be very surprised if you had lost all of the fluid in the one fork...

 

[Bigmak96]

You'll also need a 17mm hex wrench to get the fork caps off.

Unless you have the years that require a socket. Then it will be a 24mm.

 

[dduelin]

Just my thoughts. I seem to recall your bike has about 38 or 40,000 miles on it. The front wheel bearings aren't like the flange bearings which have a known history of early or repeat failures. I wouldn't worry about them other than the usual check when the wheel is off. Same with the bushings. Showa used good quality bushings and tight tolerances in assembly of the fork. The bushings can be inspected when apart again my thoughts are they will be well within wear tolerances. No special tools are required to remove the fork internals. You will need a vice or access to one or a way to hold the slider from turning when the retaining screw is removed and replaced. That is a hex head cap screw, 5 mm I think. Also the 17 mm allen wrench Scooter mentioned. I have everything including a fork seal driver you will need to replace the seal. If you are doing one side I would do the other at the same time. Oh yeah, you will need +/- 1260 cc of 10 wt. fork oil. Honda SS-8 is OEM and I recommend sticking with it unless you are changing springs, preload, or valving from stock.

 

[ScubaDave]

You may want to give cleaning the seal a try as well. My left started to leak in May and after cleaning it I have 20,000 leak free miles on it. Then at the BRG my Right had a leak, I cleaned it before heading home and so far it is leak free. To clean it you will need to pry up the dust seal (the seal you can see) then clean out any fluid or dirt from the fork tube and the well where the dust seal came out of. Next you take a pc of 35MM film and slip it down the fork tube past the oil seal. Now work it all the way around the fork tube a couple of times doing your best to lift it out in a way to bring up any dirt above the seal. Then wipe everything up again and give it a few bounces and maybe a short ride to see if you still have a leak.

 

[Gunz]

What timing. Just last night I finished rebuilding my forks and putting them back on. If it were me, given all the trouble to pull one fork, I'd suck it up and replace both fork seals at the same time. The job sounds much worse than it is. To get the forks off, pull the wheel, brakes, brake hardware, front fender, and then loosen the forks from the triple clamps (loosen the bottom bolt last): the forks then slide right out. The book does a very good job at explaining disassembly of the forks, so I'll skip that part. For special tools (all of which I learned from this site), you need a 1.5 inch ABS coupler (black plastic) and a 12" piece of 2" ABS plastic (which is used as a slide hammer). If you change the fluid (which I also recommend), pick up a $30 hand vacumn pump (which is fantasic for brakes and clutch as well). The book also recommends changing the brass seal on the bottom of the fork (under the allen bolt), which I blew off the first time, but for 63 cents, I changed it the second time I had the forks apart. Probably the best advice I could give you is to use two or three people to reassemble the forks: one to pull down on the spring extension, one to hold the dampner rod and open end wrench, and one to thread the cap on. (My wife helped with the first re-build, and it almost caused a divorce- last night I used my two teenage boys and we knocked it out in two minutes.)

FWIW, I installed the RaceTech Gold Valve kit, though I haven't put it through the paces yet. The RT gets very good reviews, but I've been very unhappy with their customer service: if you go for the Gold Valves beware, thier instructions suck and RT has very poor follow through. (I'll be adding a post later today about my lessons learned with my RT upgrade, complete with photos of the 'special tools'.)

(Disclaimer: I have an awesome tool set, including required allen drivers, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch drive torque wrenches, which should be used for this job: the 1/2 inch was used to torque the front wheel.)

 

[troykahack]

Thanks for all the advice. Dave, nice hearing from you again. Yes, i plan to do both forks while apart. I have 39K miles on the bike. Dave (dduelin) assisted me in diagnosing of a U-Joint problem, that turned out to be the rear driven flange bearings. I will order the parts this week and supplies. I'm going out of town for a couple of weeks and will tackle when i return.

Thanks again to this wonderful site. Rory

 

[bkra13]

You may want to give cleaning the seal a try as well. My left started to leak in May and after cleaning it I have 20,000 leak free miles on it. Then at the BRG my Right had a leak, I cleaned it before heading home and so far it is leak free. To clean it you will need to pry up the dust seal (the seal you can see) then clean out any fluid or dirt from the fork tube and the well where the dust seal came out of. Next you take a pc of 35MM film and slip it down the fork tube past the oil seal. Now work it all the way around the fork tube a couple of times doing your best to lift it out in a way to bring up any dirt above the seal. Then wipe everything up again and give it a few bounces and maybe a short ride to see if you still have a leak.

When I got my bike, the right side fork was filthy with fork fluid. Caliper and brake pads were fouled, there was a pool of fluid on top of the fork seal on that side. I used the 35mm trick, and it stayed clean for several weeks. I ended up changing the fluid because I had no confidence in the PO's maintenance schedule - when I drained the right side fork, it was barely a half ounce lower than the other fork. I didn't change the seals, 3k miles later the forks are nice and clean..