So after a nice stroll to the bank today and parking the bike (first time since going hard in the mud on monday, probably the hardest i've run it. thank you muzzy ) as I was leaving to go out tonight i glance at my bike (as i always do when i leave) and see a small pool of liquid beneath the front fork. I check it out, sure enough its oil!! This happened to my uncle i think, it left the front shocks pretty much useless.

I'm no genius when it comes to this bike, but i clearly busted some kind of seal or something. WTF happened? and most importantly can it be fixed with my own two hands reasonably easily? I'd hate to have to waste the few remaining weeks of summer with the bike in the shop.

 

Don't take it to the shop, for anything. You're most likely wasting your money doing so.

You can fix damn near anything yourself, unless it's something major like a crack in the frame.

First off, take either a clean piece of some sort of clear plastic film, from anything. Doesn't matter, so long as it's clean. A card might work too.

Now take off the rubber dust cover that's protecting your seals from well... dust. It should have a steel ring looking thing securing it down.

Stick the card into the fork seal, wedging it between the fork and the seal, and swipe it around in there a few times. Pull the card/film out, and look at it. If there's some beads of near microscopic dust particles on it, then wipe it down, and keep swiping it and cleaning it till you get all that gunk out from the fork seal.

Do it to both forks, then sit on your bike and jump up and down on the front end with the front brake in, to compress. Do this over and over and over and over and over, and once you're satisfied that you've wasted enough time doing this, get off and look at your forks. If there are no rings of oil on them, then you're all good.

If so, then your fork seals are just plain dead. You need to disassemble the forks, drain the oil, undo the valves and everything, and then replace the seals, and put everything back together. There should be a link somewhere on thumpertalk showing how to do this in MAGNIFICENT detail. I remember reading through it a few times, because I thought that my seals went bad. Turned out that I had just used too much Armorall last time I had cleaned the bike, and all the oily Armorall made a tonne of rings on my forks, exactly like what'd happen if they were really leaking, and the Armorall had the consistency of oil to boot too.

To be honest though, i've never done the former to a bike. I've seen and read of it done, but never actually done it myself, although I understand exactly how it works and how to do it.

What sort of riding do you do? I really doubt your forks are leaking. I know of people who leave their bikes in their trucks, forks compressed to the max, for hours at a time, and ride some of the tightest trails in the world, daily, and haven't had a single problem with their seals.

 

Do you have any warranty left? If you do, then I have to disagree with not taking it to the shop, well except the shop that EMS has been taking his bike. That card trick might work, MX riders do it sometimes at the track, but you need to get the seals looked at. Am I the only one that has a good shop to take their bike to? If I am sorry guys. Sometimes you get lucky in life.

 

Thanks very much for the info. I've found some of the card tricks (hah) in the forum and think i might be able to get this. I'm just worried that I lost too much oil and will have to get some more.

When i went riding, we took it through some good ruts, muddy/dusty trails and good puddles. I had mud packed in places i didnt know about (on the bike). After reading some of these posts it would sound like just some dirt in the seals, or maybe some tape some assembler left in there. i really hope so. I'm also a pretty big guy and havent adjusted the shocks yet from the factory settings. I didnt take it off any crazy jumps, maybe just a few feet here and there, would hardly call them jumps.

 

I bought the bike down in Kalispell Montana, which is 5 hours away from me so it'll be a pain in the **** to get warranty work done. My local shops are useless when it comes to doing things in a timely manner. One told my brother (before I told him just to do it him damned self) it would be a week wait for an oil change.....

 

Oh well in that case I guess you would be better off doing it yourself. There must be some good information out there that can help a guy out. Good luck, and hey maybe you can turn this into a picture post procedure for the rest of us. Just a thought.

 

I doubt jumps would really take out seals.

Might want to bleed the forks too. You see those two little screws just below the dash, the two flat-head gold ones, one on the top of each fork?

Put the bike on a stand, unscrew each of those, take them out, put them back in, your forks are bled.

 

righto i'll give it a try. i took the steel ring off but cant seem to get teh dust cover off, does it just pull off? i dont want to tear nothing. i'm looking for some kind of card that i can use too that wont get chewed up. maybe my blockbuster card.

deej i'll snap some shots if i have to dig deep on this one. you might see a burnt down garage in the background of some disassembled forks though if things get out of hand

update: ok i took some WPT playing cards (the jokers and instructions how to play poker) and followed sinko's instructions. I managed to pull some grainy crud out of there and wiped everything up over a few times. hopped on bounced the **** out of the bike and there are really no rings left. a couple show up but they are so small, probably from the oil that i smeared around in the process. its way better now....but lets hope that its not because there is no oil left in the fork.

i'll pull the tops off tomorrow and check...how do you check the oil? i thought i read that it was 97mm with a dipstick? can anyone clarify?

 

If you're talking about fork oil, then I really don't have a clue. You can't see anything in the fork with the bleeder screws removed. That's there only purpose really, to bleed your forks of air.

Might want to check the service manual on this one, or ask on thumpertalk. If you do the latter, then here's hoping that they won't give you **** about the bike. Those redneck bastards aren't happy unless they've got a 600cc two stroke in their favorite colour that's loaded with "bling" that doesn't actually make the bike go any faster.

Makes me sick really, seeing how materialistic some of those folks are. They blow their money on things that do nothing but make the bike look "trick", like on aftermarket graphics kits every other week, anodized oil drain bolts, painted crankcase plugs, and coloured radiator hoses. ****, for the minimal list of parts i've shown, you're already shelling out nearly 100+ USD, and taht crap does absolutely nothing for the bike, but make it look nicer.

But I digress, there's some really good info there

 

Hahah, rednecks that like bling bling? isnt that an oxymoron? Sounds like they must be a bunch of posers that just cant ride, and hide that with wheels that look sponsored.

But alas, i do not know them much and i've only ever made one post without flak, so who knows.

Anyway yeah i was talking about the fork oil. I'll do some more diggin, or ask my brother in laws kawi mechanic too. Now before you say "just take it to him", he promised my broinlaw that his quad would be done on thursday (it was brought in monday) to get a new wheel put on and a new axel. Well he didnt get his quad for the long weekend, or for 2 weeks after that!!!

I should be a bike mechanic, clearly theres enough work for it around here!!

Thanks again for the info sinko. I'll report my findings tomorrow. hopefully no more oil has leaked