Next time you have weeping/leaking, and I hope you never do (but we also know better), before you do a fork rebuild you might want to try using Seal Mates. I just did mine on seals that are only a year old and they worked great and saved alot of time. It's just road dirt that gets worked around the dust covers and into the seals from time to time. It's gonna happen.
GL1200 fork seals; the good; the bad; the ugly
Well gang, A mere 4 months ago I rebuilt the forks on my 84 gl1200 Interstate. Some of you might recall the post about "needing a warning label on those fork spring installs". (I would link to it if I knew how) Well just 3000 miles later I completed my 2nd fork seal job on the same machine. Starting seeping from the left fork first and then on the other side. This has been going on a few weeks now. Wiped and rode. Rode 310 miles on Monday and the left seal blew. Thats the bad. Dang it. With the first experience being such a PITA getting forks caps back on I was dreading this project in a big way.
Well Thursday, news seals in hand, I took it all apart. Spent most of the day rubbing on the fork tubes doing my best to get them smooth as possible. That's the ugly. They were in really bad shape. Got'em as slick as I could although I'm not overly optimistic about the long term. If, or when, they leak again I'll have to get new tubes. From Frank????
Now the good. As Wendy Bagwell used say, "with my right hand up", indicating that he was telling the truth no matter how hard it was to believe
... I, me, myself & I put the forks sprangs back in - - - by myself!!! Yeah, solo! Right hand up! The first time around round me and my buddy groaned and strained and grunted and took the better part of two hours to get the darn caps back on. = Whew!
Last night, I spent the better part of four hours going thru the forums looking for a homemade tool to compress the springs. Had a plan formulated. But got to the point in the project and thought, "what do I have to loose?" I summoned up all my courage and gritted my teeth and gave it the ole college try. BAM! 5 minutes latter I was sitting in my shop chair reaffirming my belief in the miraculous.
How did this happen?? Two observations. 1- It seems to me that the springs - Progressives - had softened up, or broken in a little. Didn't seem to require as much muscle to get back in. {On the other hand, 3500K on this trike w/o rake kit may have strenghtened my shoulders/forearms to the point I just whooped'm
)} 2nd - You know how in golf the harder you swing the harder it is to hit the ball solidly .... in retrospect I think me and my buddy just tried to out muscle them the first time. More force, applying more force making it very difficult to start the threads. Maybe it is more finesse than brute strength? Anyway glad it's done.
Only question now is why leaking so soon? The seals looked fine. Really close to the new ones. So much so I was careful not to mix them up. The old ones might have been a little out of round?? They were installed correctly. Right side up. Replaced bushings first time around also. The forks were in rough shape. Hoping the emery cloth and fine sandpaper will do the trick. And hoping I don't have to do forks seal every oil change!!! - Sirkitrider
Well Thursday, news seals in hand, I took it all apart. Spent most of the day rubbing on the fork tubes doing my best to get them smooth as possible. That's the ugly. They were in really bad shape. Got'em as slick as I could although I'm not overly optimistic about the long term. If, or when, they leak again I'll have to get new tubes. From Frank????
Now the good. As Wendy Bagwell used say, "with my right hand up", indicating that he was telling the truth no matter how hard it was to believe
... I, me, myself & I put the forks sprangs back in - - - by myself!!! Yeah, solo! Right hand up! The first time around round me and my buddy groaned and strained and grunted and took the better part of two hours to get the darn caps back on. = Whew!
Last night, I spent the better part of four hours going thru the forums looking for a homemade tool to compress the springs. Had a plan formulated. But got to the point in the project and thought, "what do I have to loose?" I summoned up all my courage and gritted my teeth and gave it the ole college try. BAM! 5 minutes latter I was sitting in my shop chair reaffirming my belief in the miraculous.
How did this happen?? Two observations. 1- It seems to me that the springs - Progressives - had softened up, or broken in a little. Didn't seem to require as much muscle to get back in. {On the other hand, 3500K on this trike w/o rake kit may have strenghtened my shoulders/forearms to the point I just whooped'm
)} 2nd - You know how in golf the harder you swing the harder it is to hit the ball solidly .... in retrospect I think me and my buddy just tried to out muscle them the first time. More force, applying more force making it very difficult to start the threads. Maybe it is more finesse than brute strength? Anyway glad it's done.Only question now is why leaking so soon? The seals looked fine. Really close to the new ones. So much so I was careful not to mix them up. The old ones might have been a little out of round?? They were installed correctly. Right side up. Replaced bushings first time around also. The forks were in rough shape. Hoping the emery cloth and fine sandpaper will do the trick. And hoping I don't have to do forks seal every oil change!!! - Sirkitrider
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275 miles today. No leaks! For now. AND wow, can't believe how much difference the 15 wt. oil made. Had put in 10 wt. before. Liked it. The 15 wt. is a MUCH harsher ride. But I can live with it so long as it stays inside there - Sirkitrider
- Sirkitrider
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