nc23 cbr400 rrk forks - cant sepparate?

[cress87]

Which washers are you talking about? The big washer that sits under the oil seal or the 'bushes' (two on each side on clipped onto the fork tube and one situated inside the fork lower)?

I rebuilt my forks with new bushes as the old ones were damaged during removal along with new oil and dust seals. Got a massive leak now. Bike sat (untouched!) outside for a couple of days and the back edge of the fork lower is soaked, the brake caliper is soaked and there is a pool of oil sat in the front wheel with some running over the edge and down the tyre.

[wig]

Don't dispare i had the same, same pool of oil, same covered brake.

it could be that you have damaged the oil seal on fitting, you can tell by removing the fork leg, pumping it a few times with the dust seal removed and see if the oil builds up on the oil seal.

The other alternative is that you have re-used the copper washers, and they are not forming a tight seal, so oil is leaking out of the oil drain screw plug and onto the calliper and rotor, once u have moved the bike it will spread everywhere.

have a look at the oil you have lost. it is quite allot then it points more readily at it being the copper washers you have re-used as the oil leaking from the oil seal is not going to be very great in quantity once the bike is stationary.

the copper washers are not the ones inside the fork.
I am talking about the little ones, one on the drain plug, and one on the bolt holing onto the internals.

if you are re-using these, you need to soften them. All you need to do is heat them till they are red, then alow to cool or cool artificially - it doesn't matter which.

then reuse them. I have had to buy a second pair of oil seals - as i was not too careful when i fitted the first set and I damaged one.

[cress87]

I did re-use the washers around the drain plugs. I shall replace that when I rebuild it now...

There is a lot of oil coming out but there is some sat around the dust seal so at least some of it must be bypassing the oil seal.

The pooling on the wheel would certainly, as you said, point to the drain plug.

I need to get that fork off the bike so I can get a good look at where it's leaking.

[wig]

the oilaround the dust sealcould be thrown atit from the oil being on the tyre and the wheelrotating and the centrifugal (???) force throwing it at the wheel and all over the tyre.
do u think u put the seals in with care?
using an old seal - or did u bash them in with brut force?

[cress87]

I used a home made seal driver thing I bought from Ebay which was a great fit on the fork tube and drove the centre of the fork seal so shouldn't have damaged it. This time I could try putting the old seal on top and driving it that way but surely the old seal will then be wedged inside the fork too?

Once I get the dust seal off, hopefully I will be able to see what's going on properly.

[wig]

the old seal on top of the new seal is easy to remove, just a little gentle prising with a screw driver.
my bike is all back together and working without a leak. where did u get the seal from?
keep us informed when u have another look

[cress87]

Right, I will probably try that this time then.

The seals were from Graeme France. I have asked him for another pair now so I shall try again at the earliest opportunity. Might as well fit my stainless downpipes too while the forks are off. :)

I'll post any further updates.

Cheers.

[cress87]

Turns out the tool I bought for driving the forks seals if did more harm than good...there was a big tear in the oil seal I removed.

The forks are rebuilt again now so hopefully they'll be ok.

Put the old oil seal on top of the new one when I installed it this time so It should be ok.

Cheers for the help everyone.

[wig]

take care riding it at first as you may have oil on the rotor or your pads still - did you anneal or replace the copper washers?
well done a good feeling when its done!

[cress87]

Forks are still off the bike atm. I shall give everything a bloody good clean before it goes back together.

When I got them off the bike, it became apparent they weren't leaking from the bottom around the washer but I have replaced them anyway.

I'm just glad there was an obvious problem when we took the forks apart so we knew why they were leaking from. :)