Went camping this weekend and when I got home I found a puddle of oil under the forks. I had the bike tied down in the trailer. So in the end I'm not sure if the seals are tost or if it could be do to the extra pressure of compressing the forks. So my ? Is how does one tell if the seals are shot or not? Also any idea what the spring rate is for the forks? Thanks
You could try cleaning the seal with a thin cable tie, just pull down the dust cover , poke it up through the seal and scrape it around and see if any crud comes out. If you haven't already done so, changing the crap OEM oil improves handling 100%. It ends up really thick. If the seals are shot, they are easy to replace. Have you ever bled out the excess pressure? Factory spring rate is .42kg
Robertk61 is right on, I had one seal weep a bit until I installed some speed bleeders and kept the pressure bled off of the tubes. No leaks at all now. Also, changing the oil improved my KYBs immensely, I used the BelRay 2.5w after running some ATF in the forks for a week or so, to clean out the gunk.
Interesting, thanks. I do use speed blenders but don't let the air out before synching down tie straps. Maybe I should start doing that. How much oil are u using? Inches down from the top? I've never messed w forks before. Good place to get seals if needed? Thanks Doug
I'm considering doing this myself. any idea what weight oil is in the forks now? 2.5w seems a bit hard to find. 3w seems available. Is 1 bottle of oil enough? there is a rocky mountain atv utube video. View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43k1qFVGW4 is this the basic steps in doing this by chance?
3w is good as well, some 3w are thinner than some 2.5w, it's complicated as hell. http://www.peterverdone.com/wiki/index.php?title=Suspension_Fluid I went with BelRay 2.5w and its centistoke number is 10. BelRay 3w HVI is an 11, close enough. One bottle is enough for one change but one quart is NOT enough for 2 changes. I believe the forks come with a 5w in them, but there is no telling what actual viscosity that stock oil is, PLUS it does get thicker with crud as the forks break in and the bronze bushings shed some material. That's why I ran some ATF (high detergent, fairly thin) in my forks to clean them up a bit, then put in the 2.5w.
I always bleed the pressure off my forks after tying the bike down in the truck. I didn't feel like tearing my forks all the way down, when I drained the stock oil, I measured what came out, it was the same amount on both sides. That's the amount of ATF I put back into the forks to clean them out for a day. When I drained that ATF, I measured what came out again, it was the same amount. That's the amount of of 2.5w I put back in each fork. I haven't had any leakage, the forks are plush and really soak up the rough stuff now.
Why do you think that is? Im considering changing mine now. Ive only got about 400 miles on it and I re-sprung the forks and the rear too. It seems to be getting better each time I ride, Im mean alot better, maybe springs are breaking in?
My forks had way too much rebound damping, when I pushed the forks down, they would stay down a lot longer than they should have, the springs could barely push the fork back up. I pumped many other comparable bikes' forks and every one would spring back relatively fast, I watched endurocross vids, and their forks were very fast to rebound, almost pogo stick like. I even had a few wrecks due to the harshness of my forks. Since I put in the 2.5w and dialed all the rebound out, I have a very supple and responsive front end, and no wrecks since then that are the fault of the front end. Your front end may be different, you have to judge your forks as they perform, they may be fine with a 5w.
