General > Riding Tips & Tricks

Fork Seal Strategy

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BDI:
I have never used anything between my tire and fender during transport. I think that is a myth and there is no way that would stress the forks more then me ridding the bike. The only thing that has ever caused me to blow fork seals premature is the wrong set up.

dirtjunkie85:
many times you dont need to buy all new seals. just run a tear off around the inside of the seal to dislodge any dirt lifitng the seal up. If seen that work fairly well, although it will not help if the seal is damaged or your lower fork tube has a bur that is tearing the seal.

Hillclimb#42:
Ok, bought a seal saver. Basically, a waste of money. Well, it did fix 2 bikes before getting ruined. Its too flimsy and folds easily with pressure. I did manage to make my own out of some clear plastic packaging, which is similar to the tear-off plastic that was mentioned.
  I could not fix the 250's forks with the seal saver method. I did get them to slow the leaking waaay down after removing them from the bike, leading me to believe that I had them tweeked in the clamps. I crash alot, and knew I was ridin with tweeked bars, but hadn't considered the forks out of alignment, until Don's suggestion hit me later. What is the best way to ensure the forks are aligned? After looking at it and thinking alot about it, I can only guess that having both forks loose and start with the wheel and axle, and work up the the clamps. Am I thinking right?

  I think you are also right about the lighter 5wt oil being better. 10w is pretty stiff. Adjustments are almost all the way soft to be in my liking. I see that stonger springs and lighter oil could be a solution. Does thicker oil or thinner oil cause more or less pressure on the seals? Does bottoming out or stiff setting cause more pressure? Just trying to understand what's going on, not really looking to set-up suspension solely on seal problems. Thanks for your input as always.

kaw rider:
you dont what your susp. to buttom out all the time, it works better when its set up for your weight and riding style.

don46:
First off, the weight of the oil should no impact on seal failure, bottoming out repeatedly will have some effect, not necessarily because of the oil but because you have compressed the air in the fork, the fork extended has a volume of air and lets say it is atmospheric, as you compress the fork it also compress the trapped volume of air and the pressure rises. stiff adjustments will have no affect on the seals other than to say your fork won't bottom as easily and it will minimize the increased pressure in the fork tube. I set my forks up to use the whole travel without harsh bottoming, I do keep the oil changed fairly frequently, have you seen the crap that comes out, and when I do change oil I also change seals and break the fork all the way down and clean everything.

Alignment is important, if the forks are twisted in the clamps, not only does it not handle right it also does not load the fork seal evenly and can lead to premature failure.

On the K5 you unscrew the axle so not much chance of misalignment there, but on the 250 the axle goes throught the lower fork tube with a nut on the opposite side and then 4 pinch bolts this is where I've seen issues, axle gets dirty and doesn't want to go in so they use the cresent wrench to tap it in, this cause a burr on the end of the axle then as you tighten it it pulls the fork tube over causing a side load on the seal. If you have a rider that is sensitive to fork settings they can feel the bit of drag on the fork becasue of the misalignment, I can't feel the difference but have realized the importance of having everything right.

The last thing I will say is that the newer forks seem to leak easier than the older units, the fork manuf. have made bigger and bigger fork tubes and have reduced the surface area of the seal to reduce friction which could leak to premature failure.

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