Looking for some ideas on an annoying issue with my friends R6. He started to get a leaky fork, so he sent them in to a pretty well known suspension place to get serviced. When he got them back we thought everything was good, but the same fork ended up weeping oil still. Sent them back, under the assumption (also thought by the servicer) that there was a mistake doing the seal or something. He recently got it back and the fork is still leaking. It will weep fluid just sitting in the garage. Anyone have ideas on what could cause this? I can't imagine there would be too many sources of this issue. Also seems unlikely there would be a mistake twice.
Clean it good, stroke it until you see oil and check where it is coming from. I had few gsxr forks leak from where tube goes in to bottom, oil ring inside failed. OEM seal used?
He said it is definitely coming from the top and dripping down the inner. No idea on the seals used. Guess we could ask the servicer.
It looks pretty badly scored. Did they polish them? Pull them apart and polsih the lower tube with 400 grit emery cloth. Dave Moss has videos for 5 bucks on his website that run you through the whole process of servici g forks on most common bikes.
Good point, it does look pretty scratched up when you see it in the camera flash...Seems to make sense. Just would have thought that would be something that would be looked at when being serviced. We'll shoot an email off to see what the servicer thinks, they've been pretty good with the whole situation.
I had a fork do the same. I kept changing seals but it would leak. It ended up being a hair scratch that let oil go by. I used 1500 grit and polished it. Problem solved.
Thanks for the ideas. Servicer wanted to have it sent back. Going to get boxed up and shipped off for the third time. Having to pay one way shipping three times is something...
If the scratches are as visible in the flesh as in the photo I would question the servicers competence. That is something a good suspension person would have taken care of the first time and re-reimbursed you for the shipping the 2nd and 3rd times but of course it's hard to say for sure over the www.
Replace the damn tubes. If the pic shows the lines/scores I'm seeing (correctly), those tubes are garbage.
400 is way too low a grit, I wouldn't use that either on the chrome stanchions. Unless there's really deep scratches I generally don't use anything more than a polishing paste. Something similar to this To the OP another thing to check (though those scratches in the picture are certainly suspect) would be to see if the fork tubes are very slightly bent. It may not be something easily viewable to the naked eye, but even a slight amount of bend in the tube can cause them to start weeping oil.
Noted the possibility of them being shot or slightly bent, thanks! Forks had been shipped back off to the servicer on Thursday. Hoping that with some direction that it's likely not the seal, they'll take a harder look for alternative causes.
In the sole interest of putting a conclusion on this thread, the fork was perfect the third try. Apparently the shop has now stopped using aftermarket seals and is going to OEM. The scratches were brought up specifically, but the tech said that they are superficial, and not near enough to cause leaking. Two track days were put on it, without leaks, so it seems to be all set!
