Leaky Fork Seal Question

[painman]

I've searched on this but no luck. I recently went on a trip and on the way home developed a leaking oil seal on the right fork leg that seemed to have caused enough fluid loss that I feel needs to check the fluid level with the other leg. I would just take the forks off but had a complete service not that long ago and I'm not quite ready for rebuild yet. Bought a Sealmate and it seems it has fixed the leak.

Question is, can I take the caps off the forks enough to measure the fluid level with the forks still on the bike? I read somewhere if the level is 5mm or less difference between forks is o.k. Any help on this would be appreciated. Painman.

 

[escapefjrtist]

It's possible to measure the oil level with the fork in the 'tree, but IMO it's not worth the effort. By the time you remove the fender, front wheel, fork cap, spring and compress the fork leg all you have left to loosen is three bolts to drop out the leg. Then the PITA factor of assembling it all on the bike.

Good luck!

--G

 

[trimmantom]

If it wasn't a prolonged period of time that the seal was leaking and you say you stopped the leak pretty quickly I'd say you didn't loose enough fluid to make a difference. But if you're really worried take the forks off and do another service and replace both fork seals. That's my take.

 

[painman]

Guess I'll just back off the preload adjustments, loosen the top tree bolts and hopefully the caps will unthread enough to check the fluid levels by tipping the bike forward to check the fluid levels. I'm almost certain I lost enough fluid that I need to top it off.

My concern is not knowing if the caps will come up enough or if I could damage them, as I have not personally worked on the forks myself yet. If all else fails I can remove the legs and replace all the fluid but was hoping not to have to. Thanks for the replies. PM. P.S. It pays to carry a SealMate on the bike in case of a seal leak so you don't have to wait until your trip is over and too much fork oil is lost....

 

[GPRIDER]

Unless you don't have very many miles on the current fork oil, I'd pull the forks off and change the oil. I'm a hack mechanic, but I've had forks off of three different bikes to change oil and/or fork seals. It aint rocket science. Just take your time. MHO

GP

 

[wheatonFJR]

Guess I'll just back off the preload adjustments, loosen the top tree bolts and hopefully the caps will unthread enough to check the fluid levels by tipping the bike forward to check the fluid levels. I'm almost certain I lost enough fluid that I need to top it off.

My concern is not knowing if the caps will come up enough or if I could damage them, as I have not personally worked on the forks myself yet. If all else fails I can remove the legs and replace all the fluid but was hoping not to have to. Thanks for the replies. PM. P.S. It pays to carry a SealMate on the bike in case of a seal leak so you don't have to wait until your trip is over and too much fork oil is lost....

+1.

I was a little leery about working on forks by myself, but after a recent fork seal leak fixed by a homemade sealmate like device, I fixed the leak. With my FJR manual handy, and Mike Carpenter's FJRTech writeup on forks nearby, and having watched griff do fork work, I plowed into it today and got it done. I filled up the oil in my right fork leg that was leaking, and double checked the oil level in my left fork. I will have aftermarket work done on the suspensions during the offseason...Traxxion fork work most likely...with an Ohlins rebuild. Should hold me off until I get my first Gen 2 FJR in about four years.

It was all very easy. The hardest and most time consuming thing for me was tightening the hard-to-access fork collar allen head locking screws.

Anyways, if it wasn't for this forum I never would have done this. Never would have had the confidence to attempt the maintenance items I do now.

Kudos to the Forum.

BTW, I will always keep my sealmate type device in my toolkit from now on.