Fork oil seals

[Guest highboy_coupe]

Hi,

 

I have started stripping my forks down to change the fork seals, and I have found one, I repeat one, tiny knick in the right hand stanchion, within the travel of the oil seal towards the rear of the bike.

The bike has just passed an MOT, it barely did 1000 miles a year and was sat in the garage most it's life (gathering spiders it seems), so my question is this:

Is it more likely the original seals have just died at 13 years old (10k miles), or the single knick at the rear of the stanchion has caused the failure (I'm pretty sure it hasn't just happened in the couple of weeks I have owned the bike).

 

If tiny knicks like this inevitably happen, how long are stanchions expected to last? I'm pretty sure I see older bikes with naked stanchions all the time that don't have weepy seals.

 

Should I add a fork protector to the slider tops, (like a sheath that goes over the stanchions)?

 

 

Is everyone constanly Aralditing pitted stanchions, or am I unlucky?

 

Cheers,

Graham

[blueboy 138]

The oil seal could have harden with lack of use,As for the fork leg if its only tiny I would smooth it with a carborundum stick dry the leg and see if its reseals if not the seals are not that dear.Good luck

[Maintenanceman 206]

Just like blueboy (btw, are you related to BadBoysBlue?) says, rubber gets hard.

I have seen quite bad "knicks" and new seals kept the oil where it supposed to be.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Maintenanceman

[Guest highboy_coupe]

Thanks. I am in the process of replacing the seals but I was worried the new seals may get torn after a while if the stanchions have a knick in them.

I just had a mooch around the back of my local bike MOT garage, you should see the state of some of the fork stanchions that pass!

 

Does anyone approve of these neoprene 'sock' protectors? Or is damage inevitable....

[Maintenanceman 206]

I wouldnt install those protectors.

- You cant clean those tubes so easily

- You dont notice possible leak so easily

- Out of sight = out of mind (might be)

- Looks silly (to my mind)

- This is not our case so much: Motocross atv`s are sometimes equipped shock protectors, ok, might live longer 8(hose shocks) but in heavy use causes shocks overheat and oil gets foamy and result is loss of shock absorbing power.

[Guest highboy_coupe]

Thanks, they do look awful..

My mt350 has rubber accordion gaiters because it is/was an off road vehicle, I suppose I've just never run into this problem before. That's on the original seals after 40k miles!

I have purchased a silicon carbide dressing stick and will try to dress the little nick.

Hopefully my new seals will sort it then

[x11r 386]

Be careful with a dressing stick you could make it worse , Id use an Arkansas polishing stone.

 

http://www.snssafety.co.uk/roebuck-arkansas-stone-100x13mm-triangular-67744-pound1777-p-104298.html?gclid=CJGTzoGn8bgCFYfMtAodmGsA4g&osCsid=af390892628b86dc72d06d9cad690bad

[Guest highboy_coupe]

So Honda have quoted me £150 to do both forks, which is cheaper than a local independant garage by about £20. I have been hearing from various sources that it it easy to knacker the new oil seals when putting them in (drifing them in with the old seals), I am at odds as to wether I should still do it myself or let Honda do it and at least have a gaurantee on the work.

 

Would anyone bother to use a Honda dealer?

[x11r 386]

It is not an easy job if you don't have a reasonable amount of tools to help you like drifts for the seals etc . if the price you've been quoted includes all the parts including dust seals and oil and includes Vat Id get them done , Make sure there are no hidden charges.

Edited August 13, 2013 by x11r