leaking fork questions

1982 xj650 seca: I just rebuilt my forks and installed them in the triple as well as the installing the tire.

brand new everything, and the left fork is leaking near the fork seal. i'm not sure if its leaking inside the fork seals closest to the outer fork tube or if its on the outside of the fork seal. i cleaned the surface before inserting the new fork seals, added 236cc or 7.98 fluid ounces into each fork, and followed all the rebuilding steps.

i pushed the forks down and saw a little air bubble just popping away on the inside of the fork seal closest to the outer tube which leads me to believe that its coming from there.

just curious if anyone has had similar issues and has any advice/knowledge. would too much fork oil lead to this?

i lubricated the fork seal and the outer fork tube before putting it back together so it couldn't have torn. there was quite a bit of oil resting above the fork seal of the left fork, but not the right fork. seems off.

thanks for the help.

 

Sorry to hear this , but think you will need to replace seals again . I once did a set of forks on a Virago , had a left fork that was leaking so replaced seals . After I got it all back together was still seaping , so took it back apart the upper seal was not quite right . Got another seal kit problem solved . Cheers

 

you hate to hear that -_- i better order some more up i guess. thanks for the response

 

Before you order again, what brand of seal did you use? Not all seals are good seals, even though marketing departments want you to believe otherwise.

 

they were emgo. definitely cheaper

 

Any pitting or chrome edges catching it?

 

luckily no. all the pitting is between the clamps on the triple, so its out of the way and wouldn't affect it. i aggressively pushed the shocks up and down on the bike and i am not seeing any more bubbles or fork oil coming out. i am going to leave it for a couple days, but do you think that if the seals were moved out of place or folded into itself on installation that they could be knocked back into place or correctly re-seated just by moving it?

 

you need something you might not have, a old 35m slide. if the lip got flipped you can work the slide between the inner fork and seal to flip it back.

 

You're right I don't have that! I'm gonna give it some time and keep an eye on it while I'm rebuilding everything else!

 

A peice of plastic cut from a soda bottle works too. It has to be cut with a knife though; scissors will curl the cut edge too much.

 

Sounds sketchy. I'm in how much is it recommended to ride on a seal that did flip tho (if that's what happened)?

 

Piloting a vehicle with only two wheels and 5 gallons of fuel between your legs sounds sketchy too, but here we are.

 

(see image below)

 

I have had good luck with All Balls fork seals , if you cannot find genuine Yamaha seals.

 

Genuine Yamaha seals are still readily available, as are good quality aftermarket. Talk to Chacal.

Carefully examine the fork tube for pitting and/or corrosion, not only in the area normally "swept" by the seals, but also in the area that you have to push the seals past to get to the swept area. Pits caused by impact from road debris (stones) often have raised edges that can damage new seals during installation, even if the pitting is outside of the normally swept area.

 

when I installed mine I was advised to wrap a piece of plastic bag--like you get at the grocery store--around the tube and then slip the seal over that and slide it down the tube to avoid any damage. The plastic is slipped out just before seating the seal.