Front fork oil leak.

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CapnDenny1

CapnDenny1

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Dec 4, 2009
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Location
O'Fallon, MO (St. Louis)
I noticed while I had the bike up on the center stand that there was a few streaks of something across the tire, as if something had leaked. Now that I finished the rear shock repair I took the bike down off the center stand and it has been on the sidestand a few days. Now I see another set of streaks across the tire. This is coming from the bottom of the right side fork tube. I put my fingers down on the bottom and I brought back a little bit of oil. It's not a fast leak, because it holds air pressure pretty well. From my study of the front forks it doesn't look like the main seal failure would even cause a leak of the oil? Maybe that's wrong, but that's how it looks to me? There is no oil on the fork tubes above the dust seal. So this is the drain plug for the front forks. It's about a $1.80 part. I'm thinking I can just pull the wheel off and take the fork oil drain bolt out, after releasing the air pressure and just replace the washer and I should be good to go. But I guess I need to replace the oil then. I really don't want to dissaemble the forks if I don't have to. What do you guys think? It's not a bad leak, but who knows how much oil is left in there now. And I don't want oil dripping onto the brake disk.
 
down and dirty quick fix

You may just need a crush washer for that drain plug?? let the air out, lay bike on it's side, have new washer(bolt if you want) ready, unscrew bolt catch oil, use thumb to sto, insert new bolt..measure lost oil, take valve stem out of fork top, insert new oil to match lost oil, re install valve stem..good to go. Or drain all the oil out and put all new in.

or as said above rebuild the forks..
 
I don't understand why you would lay it on it's side? Couldn't I just jack it up under the frame to lift the front wheel off the ground. Then remove the axle clamps and drop the wheel to get access to the bolt. I don't even need to pull the brakes off do I? Maybe just tighten the fork drain bolt. If it's a crush washer it may just need a little more crushing. I like the idea of just draining the oil and refilling it with the proper amount. That would get me riding and only cost a quart of fork oil.

Then when I get a few dollars to spare I will do the progressive springs on the front along with new seals.

I don't doubt I can do the work, I just can't afford the parts right now.

Thanks,
 
From the description of the leak sounds like the center allen screw is leaking?
The fork drains are on the side near the bottom of the fork tubes. No need to remove anything other than those drain plugs to drain the oil.
 
OK. I guess I was confused. I thought that was the drain plug. So does the center allen screw leaking indicate anything besides it is leaking? It doesn't show a bad seal right? If the seals were bad then it would leak from above where the two tubes slide together right?

Why is it all my sentences have question marks? See what I mean? Doh!

I mean Doh?

Dennis
 
I'm not certain because I haven't done mine but I think if the allen screw is loose it will leak.

Maybe if it's been opened in the past loctite wasn't used? Loctite will act as a sealer. Use the blue loctite not red, you want to be able to get them off in the future.
 
If the allen screw was not torqued correctly, it will work its way back out. Is it possible that a PO replaced the fork seals themselves and didn't tighten it correctly? It is an unusual leak for it to show up now. Of course, if it is loose, tighening helps!
 
Yes it will leak from allen bolt if not tightened correctly or bad crush washer in there..I thought your leak was form the drain plug..bike on it's side with drain hole up..no/little oil comes out vs on jack oil comes out..for allen bolt jacking works as wells as bike on it's side..will leak out either way.
 
I looked at it again, and it appears to have been leaking from the drain bolt location. So I got my 10mm box end wrench and tightened the bolt a bit. Not too much, but I got a good 1/4 more on it before it got tight. It was pretty evident that the oils was coming out there and just running downhill, or downtube from there. I'll see if that fixes it for now. That would be awesome!

Thanks for the help.

Dennis
 

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