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Butchered fork seal sealing surface - junk sleeve?


DJW997
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Hi guys, I'm doing the fork seals on a friend's scoot and found a nasty surprise after I got one of them out:

152e1du.jpg

The fork did leak like hell, (hence doing the seals) and the seal itself doesn't look too bad apart from where it has sat against the horrible mess you see above.

Would it be a bad idea to try and get some of the nasty burs off and use some kind of sealent to help it seal better, or am I just wasting my time? I expect it would only continue to leak. If it was my bike I would just replace the sleeve and poke the idiot that made the mess in the first place right in the eye.. christ knows how he's managed that.. but it's for a friend of a friend, and of course he's not going to want to shell out the money for a new sleeve.

Let me know what you think. Has anyone else seen anything like this? Looks like whoever did it used a hammer and chilsel!

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You have to bin it I'm afraid :shakeno: , you MIGHT get it to seal but how long for is anyones guess, how much is a new/replacement leg? :eusa_think:

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rub down any high spots, fill any low spots and rub down again...job done for nothing

Fill the low spots with what - chemical metal?

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why the seals should never be taken out with a screwdriver lol

i would say thats knacked

I used a big blunt flat blade and pryed up and 'walked' it out without appyling any pressure to the inside of the tube! It must have been one sharp screwdriver or they whacked it with a hammer.

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As Airhead (OG) says it MIGHT be possible to use it again, depends on how much metal has been gouged out of the seal bearing surface, if you try a dremel and small grinder on it you might get all the burrs off and a flat surface to work with, it's not just the inner part of the seal that need to "seal" but the outer edge goes against the inner raised edge and also keeps oil in, if you can just take off only what's sticking out and leave as much of the old surface as possible there's a chance that it would still work ok. The only way to find out is to try it!! Good luck. :eusa_think:

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As a licenced mechanic I would say don't fix it,only because of libality issues,it's not your bike so if the owner get hurt because it leaks againg or completly blows out, then your liable.

If it was your bike and your will to chance it then thats a different story,realy this isn't your problem and the owner is the one paying for the repair . So if it cost more so what .

There must be some used legs some where to keep the cost down thats the safe way to go

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As a licenced mechanic I would say don't fix it,only because of libality issues,it's not your bike so if the owner get hurt because it leaks againg or completly blows out, then your liable.

Yes, very good point. I would have talked it over with the guy first and made sure he understood the risk, but yes, I'd hate to have that on my hands regardless.

I took the other fork apart today to find similar damage, but not quite so deep gouging. It looks the idiot tried to get the seals out by stuffing a screwdriver between the sleeve and the seal trying to scoop it out that way. :crazy: Did I mention both seals were fitted upside-down?

I've managed to find a pair of used forks along with a steering stem for £50. Seals need doing, so I'll re-build those and throw these ones away I suppose. Let's hope the 'new' ones haven't been similarly abused!

I'll let you know how I get on.

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Most likely then the PO had tried to get the seals out without removing tubes,I have a method of doing it,that dosent dammage anything but won't post it because if done wrong,or someone else dose it wrong or get's hurt doing it then I'm liable.I can get a set of fork seals in and out in minutes without dismanteling the fork dosent work 100% of the time but about 98% it does.. The funny part is I don't do my own forks I let the pros do it so the fork is set up for my weight,I have tried to duplicat what they do,ie exact amount of oil each screw turned the same and it just never seems to be the same as when they do it so for the 50 bucks they charge I let them do it.

For the average rider most wouldn't know the difference and I don't mind fixing fork seal for them but for me ,I belive the pro's have some secrects that they won't tell and it makes my bike better so ,,not to plug a company.. BUT Progressive Suspension does all my suspension work for my bikes.

I will give everyone a hint though as to how i get the seals out ,,extra oil and the retaing cilp removed, a bottle jack, and a proper seal driver,if you have done fork seals befor you should be able to figure out the rest yourself.

PS even if you talked it over with the guy "talk is cheap" and as most peeps are cheap he would have said yes do it and the when it failed he would be blaming you for ducking it up,, possibly wanting you to pay for it to be fixed properly and if he took it to court you would have to... not worth the hassel.. hope the "new" forks are good enough to work with.

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I had a chat with the guy today, he has owned the bike from new and said his uncle was the last to do the seals, so he's going to try asking him to cover some of the cost of the new parts. (Rightly so imo!)

I only have experience with simple forks like these, no upside down, no adjustment screws or anything, just fill with oil and slap it back on the bike, but indeed, if it makes your bike feel better having the pros do it, fair enough. They must know something.

Does this method make a big mess everywhere when the seal pops out? :icon_wink:

If I didn't know the guy at all then I wouldn't even consider trying to patch it up - I'd be hesitant even to consider used replacement parts (depending on the part), but I do know the guy and I know he wouldn't screw me over like that.

Regardless, new (used) forks will be ordered when I get some money from him.

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Not if you wrap a towel around first,

yep the wr's fork is a fine tuned piece, just the proceedure to get the oil in is a page long in the factory manual and that has to be exact for each different weight of rider,then the preload and damping has to be set as well,john at progressive has all his customer on file down to thing's like how much fuel you typicaly run,type of boots and helmet and updates your weight on the day you drop off your fork ,he weighs you on his scale. NO bs'ing him on that. All of that gets caculated into the formula for setting up your fork,He only repairs forks and shocks that's it and you have to remove them, he is so bussy it's typicaly a 2-3 day wait to get them back

Shame his uncle didn't know how to do fork seals and made such a mess of it,they could be welded up and trued on a lathe as foams said but probably cost more than the used forks,O well the owner now knows to make sure the preson doing work for him from now on knows what they'er doing before letting them butcher it

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Interesting thought about welding and truing, I can get access to a lathe and a good engineer for nothing! I'll be going to see him when I get the head bearing race pressed off the steering stem, so maybe worth picking his brains on it.

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