Rode up small hill climb/wall. Didn't know there was a dirt ditch on other side. Went over bars as bike came to a halt. Noticed fluid coming from right front fork by dust seal. 2015 beta Evo . Is this the seal or something worse. It's more of an oozing than dripping. Should I try seal mate?

I weigh 137 lbs.

Old

fork scratched during crash?

A hard front end crash will sometimes knock your forks out of allignment, or tweaked slightly, which means they are not stroking proper and that can put undue stress on the fork seals and cause them to weep. Look down over the front end of the bike you can usually see the miss allignment. Usually you can adjust by turning the handlebars quickly while smacking the edge of the wheel against a stationary object to realign. Or you could have damaged or scratched the fork slider.

Thanks will try realignment and seal mate. I don't see any scratches and have the fork guards.

Edited January 31, 201610 yr by oldgrumps

A hard front end crash will sometimes knock your forks out of allignment, or tweaked slightly, which means they are not stroking proper and that can put undue stress on the fork seals and cause them to weep. Look down over the front end of the bike you can usually see the miss allignment. Usually you can adjust by turning the handlebars quickly while smacking the edge of the wheel against a stationary object to realign. Or you could have damaged or scratched the fork slider.

But slacken the pinch bolts first!

Do you have to remove the coil spring to remove the fork dust cover?

I had a crash and hit the side of the fork at the seal.  It made the fork tube slightly (actually quite a lot) oval at the seal.  I had to press it out carefully and managed to get it back to round within a few hundredths.  Most likely you just need to realign your forks.

 

On a side note, IMO, I personally think seal mates or any other form of thing (like a goggle tear off or credit card) that you put in and around the lip of the seal is a bad idea.  Firstly you risk pushing crud into the fork, secondly you risk damaging the soft lip on the seals.  Generally if fork seals leak they need replacing.  There is the odd time some grit gets in them but they should be cleaned by disassembly, not poking something into the for seal.  You can get a lot of hours out of fork seals, when they leak, replace them and then get lots more trouble free hours.  Never leave dirt to go dry and hard on your forks as most wiper seals are not strong enough to scrape it off.

 

As others have said it might need re aligning, Put bike on a stand and slacken off wheel spindle pinch bolts, fork clamp bolts, mudguard bolts and top yoke nut. While you are there grease the threads on all the bolts except the top yoke clamp, use medium threadlock on that.

 

Don't overtighten anything when doing back up.

 

Realigning is a good idea after a crash but i suspect the leak is due to dirt in there or the fork pushing oil out the seal under the pressure of the hit!

 

If it still leaks replace the oil seal, The dust seal should be fine on a 15 bike.

 

You remove the dust cover with the spring on, just tap round the base carefully, working round a bit at a time with a blunt screwdriver and it will prise up.

Thanks guys. I realigned the forks but oil was still weeping. It's Sunday so all the shops are closed. Decided to make my own tool out of film negatives. Made a few passes when I noticed the tip of the tool was broken off! Now I was really upset! Cut out a few more tools and made about 50 passes but could not get anything to surface. Not sure if it's stuck why down in the seal or where it went???

Put the bike back together and the seal is not leaking anymore. I'm not going to worry and just ride it!

Old

Edited February 1, 201610 yr by oldgrumps