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Fork Seal leak or was it!!


manoil

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Sorry for the long winded post but it may save someone some time/grief in future.

 

So saw some oil on my fork leg on RHS had a feel round the stanchion, it was wet with oil.

My fairly recently acquired 2004 was approaching 50K miles, so decided to rebuild both forks, bought new bushes, seals and 5w oil and fitted RaceTec gold valves.

During strip noticed some dings in stanchion didn't look too deep so rubbed high spots down cleaned them off and sanded with 2000 paper. Put them back together feeling good about my handiwork.

 

3 weeks later noticed oil on my RHS fork leg, swore a few times and first opportunity stripped it and gave it a polish with metal polish another new seal and back together it went thinking Bingo all fixed!!

 

But no my VFR was playing hard to fix: couple of weeks later   Yep you guessed it oil on RHS fork lower and oil on stanchion.

 

I thought feck this bought a new stanchion put it all back together thinking Solved!!

 

But No my 800cc madam had other ideas--- 2 weeks later oil on fork lower and on new stanchion, I was ready to chop it in for something else?

 

Had some Red wine to drown my sorrows and next morning in bed had a Eureka moment!!!!

 

2 weeks after I got it, about 4-5 months ago, I punched in my Reg No into the Honda UK website after a tip off on here and it said it had missed a recall for oil cooler hoses, phone call to nearest Honda dealer had it booked in and new oil cooler hoses were fitted.

And where are the fittings?

Right above the forks; quick check showed that the RHS oil cooler fitting was loose and probably blowing oil onto the stanchion. LHS fitting was tight.

 

Its early days but I hope this is it solved once and for all? reminds that thinking outside the box can help sometimes.

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Good report and yeah, sometimes things aren’t quite what we think they are. Better to find it near home than miles away on a mountain road somewhere. 

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No didn't notice colour difference, with all the crap we have on the roads in my area it was the dirt stuck to oil on the lower leg which drew my eye to it.

 

In retrospect I feel I should have looked wider for an answer after the first seal replacement and now have I guess a reasonably good condition stanchion in my garage?

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Nice write up - it's always easier to see what's going on from a distance!!

What's the deal with the fork racetec gold valves? Are they a direct replacement off the shelf? and if you don't mind my asking, how much? I assume you got them from Racetec?

cheers

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They are a replacement but have to be built/tuned by using different thickness shims depending on the type of use: race or road.

 

I bought mine from the bay from a US supplier for a really good price, £82 for springs and £89 for the valves you need to drill a small hole in each valve body which is a bit finicky.

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