Tubes at full extension, Q-tip, brush apply some DS2 around above the seal, plunge the forks a few times repeat a few times. Same under the dust seals, slide em down over the DS2 powder till they are slippery.
Just an interesting experiment?
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What the fork is wrong with my seals?
- Thread starter bosco659
- Start date
Just an interesting experiment?
I’ll try that but first I’m going to reinstall one dust boot only and ride with it like that for a bit. If the goo comes back I can then attribute it to the dust boot.
I have previously applied a mix of oil and DS2 to the fork seal but still had sticking. Perhaps the few application will do the trick. I’ll try a number of things before I tear the forks apart again.
Frank Falcon
XS650 New Member
This might be to late but here's an idea. Put your seals in a Ziploc bag. Get as much air out of the bag as possible. Put the seals in your freezer. This will help shrink the outer diameter of the seal. When you're ready to put them in the lowers, first use a heat gun or hair dryer to warm up the lower leg where the seal is being installed this will expand the lower inner diameter. Sometimes they will just drop in no pounding required. If you have to tap them in a big socket or seal driver is the correct way. When possible this also works great for bearings being in stalled.
Prep for another test ride: Left fork, dust boot suspended under lower triple clamp. Right fork - tube cleaned with alcohol; dust boot turned inside out and cleaned with alcohol; reinstalled dust boot with a thin coat of fork oil on the stanchion. Went for a 40 km ride. When I returned home the left fork tube was fairly clean showing no signs of sticking. The right tube did have some buildup of the sticky black $hit. One would then deduce that it was the dust boot that was causing problems, however, on closer inspection, the black marks weren’t in the location of the dust boot travel but were where the fork seals would be contacting the tube.
I’m not sure what this means but it looks like the dust boot / seal combo is the trouble maker. Prior to surface prepping the stanchion, I’d get black marks with no dust boot, so the surface prep has helped (May be repeating myself from previous posts)
I’m not sure what this means but it looks like the dust boot / seal combo is the trouble maker. Prior to surface prepping the stanchion, I’d get black marks with no dust boot, so the surface prep has helped (May be repeating myself from previous posts)
The thought plickens….
I visited a new friend who is quite knowledgeable in the repair of bikes. I mentioned my stiction issue and he told me to check the dimensions and alignment of my fork brace. He said he’s seen cases where slight variances in dimensions can cause fork alignment issues.
Heeding his advice, I removed the fork brace, loosened the axle clamp, bounced the front end several times and tightened the clamp up. I marked the axle before the adjustment and the forks actually moved closer to each other by 1-1.5mm. I tested the bounce of the forks and it appeared to be significantly better. A short ride around the big block showed no signs of sticking.
.
When I redo the seals this winter I’ll pay closer attention to this on reassembly and see if I can get even better action out of the forks.
This was a big win today.
I visited a new friend who is quite knowledgeable in the repair of bikes. I mentioned my stiction issue and he told me to check the dimensions and alignment of my fork brace. He said he’s seen cases where slight variances in dimensions can cause fork alignment issues.
Heeding his advice, I removed the fork brace, loosened the axle clamp, bounced the front end several times and tightened the clamp up. I marked the axle before the adjustment and the forks actually moved closer to each other by 1-1.5mm. I tested the bounce of the forks and it appeared to be significantly better. A short ride around the big block showed no signs of sticking.
. When I redo the seals this winter I’ll pay closer attention to this on reassembly and see if I can get even better action out of the forks.
This was a big win today.
