Red: Fork Seal Saga, Part 3

Let's recap...

• Found the left fork leak quite early on, back in May
• Bought a pair of fork bottoms ($39)
• Absolutely destroyed one of them trying to remove the seal
• But used the other one to replace Red's left unit (Part 1, June 1)
• This seemed to stop the leak.. for awhile anyway
• Then in July, the right side starting leaking
• Bought a complete set of forks ($88, though very perished)
• Used one of the units to replace Red's right side (Part 2, July 21)
• But only a week later, found that both sides were leaking again

Realized I could gamble on eBay forks forever and it's just luck of the draw on whether I would get a decent one or not.  And forget about actually trying to swap the fork seal itself...

Then had the thought that the forks are not a precision unit.  If oil is leaking out the top, why not just try to "plug" the leak?  Thought maybe I could just add my own o-rings into the mix.

Got a bunch of different sizes at Ace for about $.80 a pop.

Had the day off of work (gotta love Summer Fridays) and plenty of time.  Getting at the forks is becoming routine at this point.

Removed both forks and swapped to the new "golden" colored springs, thinking that they were stiffer.

Then I added a #19 and a #20 on top of the fork seal unit but under the metal washer so that the spring would hold them tight in place.

Also switched down to 10 weight old (instead of 15).

Ended up being two steps back...

While it seemed to stop the left side leak, the right side was still leaking.  Not only that but the gold springs caused the forks to bind on compression and you had to force them back up into place.  Thought maybe that condition would only exist in the garage but an afternoon ride confirmed that they were binding no matter what.

Red: Fork Seal, Part II

Surprised when I realized I'd done a four-hour session.  Wasn't anything so epic, but perhaps I was taking my time.

Went through the now-familiar process of removing the seal unit from the right fork, but realized something was a bit off when I opened up the drain plug and nothing came out.

Pulled the bottom fork off and saw the opening was pretty gummed up.  Shined a light into the hole and it was completely blocked up.  Used a small allen wrench to poke around and finally saw there seemed to be not only fork muck but also some kind of residue, maybe very old gasket material.  Then used a longer bolt to clean the threads and push it out.  Sprayed the inside out with the hose to rinse it clean, then ran some WD40 through it.

Bolted everything back up and flushed it with a tiny bit more fork oil before filling it with 125mL of clean fluid.

Given how much muck was in the right, was worried same might be true on the left.  Removed the bolt and once again, nothing flowing.  Popped the bottom off and pretty much the same level of muck although no gasket residue on this one.  Just did the power rinse with the hose and the WD40, which seemed to clean it all out nicely.  Filled with 125mL.


Took a fresh look at the battery compartment.  Had hoped to use the new terminal block to attach all the positive leads together, but even though the block fit fine in the compartment by itself, once it actually had wires attached to it, it was just too clunky to fit clean.

But after untangling and sorting the wires a bit better, realized that maybe I could get away with just organizing the existing mess a bit better.  Removed the old "junction" and chopped each lead much shorter to get rid of the excess.  Also used a zip tie to lock all the positives together.

The negative bundle was the only one that attached to the battery so only those wires had to be long.  Shortened one of the kill wires and then used a bunch of zip ties to make it a little neater.

Putting everything back in, it's still a nest of wires, but when you pull them free, it's much more organized and clear where everything is supposed to go.  So good enough for now...

Still not sure why Ivy's compartment is so "empty" compared to Red's...

Also checked the plug and it was black and clean.

Red: Fork Seal Swap

One big job and lots of little ones...

The main event was swapping the left fork seal housing in the hopes it would fix the leak.  Got a couple of fork bottoms on eBay that were very perished and really almost the only usable thing was one good housing.

So the fender and wheel came off.  Then unscrewed the fork bottom from the housing.  Then unbolted the fork leg itself.

Examining the left leaky housing, it was obvious how worn down it was.  The new eBay one did look much better.

Swapped it over, flipped the spring right way up (the narrow coils go on top!) and put the fork back finger tight.

But I had also seen some weeping on the right side and sure enough, that housing was pretty perished as well.  Not having a second good housing to use, all I could do was clean it up as much as possible and replace the o-ring.  Hopefully that's enough.  At least it never leaked as badly as the left.

Added a touch over 100 mL of oil back to each side.


With the wheel off, also took a look at why the front brake seemed so weak (especially compared to Ivy's).  Didn't really see anything wrong with the brake itself, so I'm worried that maybe the drum lining is worn down, which unfortunately means a new wheel hub.  Though that kills two birds with one stone so that I could balance and true it at the same time.  A job for another day...

Also got excited fitting the speedo cable until I realized that there was no speedo gear!  Added the cable for now, but will need to wait for the part.


Then went to torque the rear flange bolts only to find that 3 out of the 4 would spin endlessly.  All I could really do was try to hold them in place with the tabs.  Will need to check them often.

Found a tiny leak from the bottom of the base plate, but it's a very slow leak.

Finally, added the new thermometer to the bars (the one that I got from an Instagram add and then took 2 weeks to arrive...)