my luck with fork seals!

so this bike has been great i ride it every day and at first i was really pushing her. went through some nasty mud and my fork seals were leaking the dealership fixed it for free under warranty. after that i decided to take it easy on her and started riding the kdx hard off road instead. well last weekend my buddy wanted to ride so he took out the kdx and i took out the wr. I didn't ride her hard or through any mud. and come today i see the left fork seal leaking bad. went to take off the dust seal to clean under the seal thinking it might just be dirt and when i touched the dust seal a lot of fork oil started coming out. what gives its either me or the dealership did a bad job on the seal. i weigh only 170 with gear so i don't think im punishing the suspension too much any ideas?

you have to replace the fork bushings along with the seals or they will leak again..... you should be able to ride anywhere and nothing go wrong as long as washing your bike is part of your normal maintenance.

When I wash my bike I just run water over the forks and gently wash them. I make sure not to spray up into the seals. I'm just frustrated because my crf450 would take so much more of a beating on a track and simple fire roads seemed to of destroyed them.

kpla51 wrote:

so this bike has been great i ride it every day and at first i was really pushing her. went through some nasty mud and my fork seals were leaking the dealership fixed it for free under warranty. after that i decided to take it easy on her and started riding the kdx hard off road instead. well last weekend my buddy wanted to ride so he took out the kdx and i took out the wr. I didn't ride her hard or through any mud. and come today i see the left fork seal leaking bad. went to take off the dust seal to clean under the seal thinking it might just be dirt and when i touched the dust seal a lot of fork oil started coming out. what gives its either me or the dealership did a bad job on the seal. i weigh only 170 with gear so i don't think im punishing the suspension too much any ideas?

kpla51 wrote:

When I wash my bike I just run water over the forks and gently wash them. I make sure not to spray up into the seals. I'm just frustrated because my crf450 would take so much more of a beating on a track and simple fire roads seemed to of destroyed them.

For what it's worth I use my WR as a plated dirt bike and it takes a serious beating--maybe two dozen hard, long days on dirt in my year+ of ownership, some of them over serious rocks.  I do clean the forks when I'm done but not obsessively: just a wipe down with soap and water.

I'd suspect either a problem with the seals or since you've had similar problems with two sets maybe inspect the bushings while it's apart.

Seals are pretty straightforward--have them replaced by a different dealer/mechanic and check the bushings before you go any farther.

If it keeps leaking I'd start to suspect bent forks--has the bike been in an accident that you know of?  Or perhaps a particularly rough dirt nap?

-morgan

Iv decided to send them off to go race. But even since the new seals the girls never got to dirty and I gently cleaned them so since you guys brought up the bushing that might be the problem. But what causes that to fail? The bikes not even a year old

kpla51 wrote:

Iv decided to send them off to go race. But even since the new seals the girls never got to dirty and I gently cleaned them so since you guys brought up the bushing that might be the problem. But what causes that to fail? The bikes not even a year old

I suspect a defect in the forks. Seals shouldn't fail after a year, even if they do get dirty.

Did both seals fail? That makes less sense unless the defect is in both forks.

I hear great things about go race, let us know what they find.

-morgan

It was only the left side that's pouring out oil the other one is fine and dandy. The first time they were just leaking a little because of all the mud and it was so hot out as soon as u went though the mud it dried on the fork tubes.

The bike has bottomed out a few times could that of caused something this severe.

kpla51 wrote:

The bike has bottomed out a few times could that of caused something this severe.

No!

I bottomed my bike out a few dozen times now ( its too soft for the mx track lol) and my fork seals are fine and will be untill they get full of dirt or wear out in a couple of years.

You have an issue with either worn/out of spec bushings or missalined forks.

What would be misaligned ? Sorry I'm learning here lol

The fork bottoms on the axle.

When you install the wheel you need to tighten the brake side then adjust the right fork leg so its centered and not binding.
Theres a couple of ways to do this, I leave the bolts loose and rock the bike back and forth grabbing the front brake it centers it self this way. The other way is to measure how far apart the forks are top and bottom and make them exactly the same.

If you dont get the forks aligned something has to give when they move up and down and the fork seal is the softest part.

The too to bottom distance makes sense. Ill have to check that out

Would changing a bushing be easy? Iv read that the seals are not that hard to do.

kpla51 wrote:

Would changing a bushing be easy? Iv read that the seals are not that hard to do.

Yes, probably. At least no harder than seals. I have not done WR forks but maybe a half a dozen other bikes.

The part that can be a challenge is removing the dampener rod from the fork leg. It looks like Yamaha has a tool but there is usually an work-around. I have used a fast impact wrench on other bikes. With many I've been able to just remove the bolt by clamping the fork leg in a vice (with soft jaws of course).

A fork seal driver can be made inexpensively with PVC and a dremel or hack saw.

If you don't have it yet pick up the service manual--it can be found for free online. The steps are in there.

-morgan

Travis at GO-RACE does a good job and is a gentleman.  He did my forks (and shock) and I am quite happy with the results.

+1 on what BigLake was saying ... centering the forks.  I chose the "loosen all bolts, tug and rock, and then tighten to specs" route.

Best ... Raymond