| Author | Message | ||
     Supertoon |
...and no, I'am not Heidi Klum. I did notice, as I was taking my bike out of winter storage, a oil stain about the size of a dinner plate on the floor on the right hand side of the front wheel. There are streaks of oil on the right side slider and an accumulation of oil on the flat section above the axle. The bike has 20 000 miles and I don't wheelie (much). Using the search function has turned up quite a few incidents of seal failure especially on the right hand side. SO, should I replace both seals, has anybody had success in reducing dive by going with heavier oil? If I have to tear down the forks seems like a good time to switch out to 07 and up springs, in Canada they seem to be severely back-order. Any comments would be helpful, also another dumb question, is riding to my dealer (5 miles) going to bugger anything up? | ||
| Roostre |
Mine did the same a few weeks back. It made my front brakes fade badly. I rode it a few hundred miles carefully and then took it to the dealer- who repaired the seal AND replaced the front brake pads under warranty. Just be careful- if your brakes fade keep them applied until the fluid burns off and they will come back.  | ||
| Tootal |
And I thought that was just ice cream on your face!! Your not the first to use that line on this forum, somebody will soon put a link to the monkey video! If your going to take them apart, do both. Do the 07 spring swap. You must use the 07 fluid level as it is different than the 06. Don't change oil as the new springs work really well. I did a triple tree, spring change thread with pictures and home made tools that might help you with part of the job but now I'm going to have to go find it and post a link. Wait, I have those tab thingies so I don't have to leave here to go look. I'll be back.... Hey, I found it: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/442538.html?1236474150 Hope this helps. There are also seal changing threads somewhere on here but I didn't do them so you'll have to search for them. Good luck! | ||
| Choyashi |
Dam, I wanted to say that ice cream on your mustache line! | ||
| Rays |
The R/H seal must get a little harder life with the brake pad residue I suspect. I am very particular about cleaning road grime and insect guts off my fork lowers every week but my R/H seal started leaking at about 37,000 miles. I was a tightwad and only replaced that seal (I do my own work now that warranty is long gone) and the L/H one lasted until 49,000 miles. This time I replaced them as a pair.  If you haven't been riding it there is probably little or no oil on the brake pads (yet) so I would clean off the excess and make sure it isn't pouring out. If not a 5 mile ride should be no issue - just ride accordingly. If you are going to tackle this yourself you definitely need the service manual and the thread from Tootal is very nicely illustrated with detailed, clear photos. The seals take only a little more effort - make sure you have a set of bushes on hand as well as the seals. There are several threads over in the Knowledge Vault where others have found the teflon bush surface torn up. That wasn't the case with mine but it may have been luck - I have changed the oil at 15,000 mile intervals (a little longer than the factory schedule). The following pictures add to Tootal's thread to cover the whole process. There is also another detailed thread over in Knowledge Vault that covers the seal replacement. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/384 2/249047.html  The damper rod is removed using a 8mm allen key.  The seal is driven out by the bushes after removing the dust seal and snap-ring.  The whole fork strips down as shown - not as complicated as it sounds. This is a fork from my '06 Uly at 49,000 miles - you can see a bit of wear now visible on the chrome leg.  There are many discussions about people making their own seal driver tools and I did do that the first time. This time I reached for Mr Visa and bought this - what luxury to have the right tool.  |
