Cleaning Fork Seals

[Danny23]

What do you guys use to clean the fork seals? Do you just slide the dust cover down and spray WD40 up there? Do you scrub them? I bought this bike new three months ago and I already blew a fork seal. I've just been spraying them down with WD40. What should I do different?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Bet On Red]

use photograph negatives to slide up in there and clean the dirt out. Or get some "seal savers"

 

[turboandy]

Make sure you don't have any nicks in the tube, it doesn't take much. Bud at Bumpsticks showed me that, I was amazed.

 

[john_bilbrey]

I'll second the photo negative. I've even seen it "stop" a leaking seal - it just removed the piece of debris that was causing the leak. Remove the dust covers and clean all that junk out after each ride. Use the film negative to remove anything that you can't get - or see - trust me, there's junk in there ;)

 

[jharmon]

You could also take a strip of electrical tape, wrap it around the forks, then push down on the forks, over the tape. This usually clears them out as well.

I would have to agree photograph film works too, or you can use a euchre card. But don't use a poker card! You don't want to poke a hole in the seal!

Ha ha. I kill myself.

 

[Danny23]

Hey thanks a bunch guys.