Someone

Member
Mar 12, 2001
865
0
I have recently had the bad experience of realizing both my fork seals are leaking. It's leaving puddles of oil where I park it.

Is it a difficult process to replace the seals? I have a friend that will replace them for me, but he lives an hour north, and he wants me to leave my bike with him for a few days. I would rather gain the experience of fixing this myself, and know that someone else isn't riding my $200 a month bike. =)

I do have a manual for my bike, I just don't want to take it apart and have things flying everywhere.

Can anyone offer any suggestions, tips, instructions, or words of wisdom?

Thanks.

Jeff
 

Jeremy Wilkey

Owner, MX-Tech
Jan 28, 2000
1,453
0
Jeff,
Why don't you remove the forks and give him just those. You will need to one way or the other.
Follow your manual and it should be no major prolem. If your not confident then have a proffesional do it so you don't end up spending several mounths worth of payments for a mistake that could have been avoided.
Regards,
Jer
 

Someone

Member
Mar 12, 2001
865
0
Thanks Jeremy. If I do end up having my friend fix my seals, I am going to just bring the forks to him.

I wanted to see what you thought about the "film negative" trick. It seems that people are having success with using film negatives to work inside their seals to get dirt out that is trapped. My bike is relatively new with only about 25 hours on it. I find it hard to believe that the seals are bad already.

Do you think this is worth a try?

I have lost quite a bit of fork oil since they started leaking, is there a "how to add and check fork oil for dummies"? My manual is quite confusing to me, I guess if there was step-by-step instructions for everything in the manual, it would be thicker than an LA phonebook.

When we bleed air from the forks, should there be pressure on the front suspension? I have my bike on an ATV lift, opened up my air bleeder screws, and there was no air (audibly).

Thanks again.
 

SPD

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Feb 20, 2001
591
0
Someone make sure you have the pressure of the front end when you bleed them. Take the forks off and use the film first before you send them in. Might save a few bucks.I've done it to mine a couple of times and fixed the leak. If you do have to replace them DO NOT use Leak-Proof seals.
 

KDX1

Mod Ban
Jun 5, 2001
228
0
Blown fork seals

My experience with the newer forks are that the inverted ones just don't last as long as the traditional forks. I don't know why this is, except that everyone that I have talked to at various cycle shops tells me that inverted forks are more prone to "blowing out" than traditional forks.:(
 
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