I had the nervous-nelly front-end feel, and after counseling and browsing this and other forums I decide to replace the steering head ball bearings with tapered rollers (All Balls), and while I was at it I thought I'd upgrade the front suspension with the Progressive Monotube assembly (I had previously installed a Super Brace fork brace).
Whew! That was a lot of work, but I was quite pleased with the results. But now, probably 1000+ miles later, I inspected the fork seals (spurred on by a blown seal on another bike).
What! There is a bit of an oil film towards the top of the left inner fork tube, but more distressing is the occurrence of a fair bit of pitting on the surface of the inner tube, up to an inch and a half or so from the dust seal. I can't believe that I would not have noticed that when I did the front end work.
Damn! I guess I'm going to have to tear the whole thing down again. Has anyone had any similar experience, under the same or similar circumstances? I haven't yet figured out what would cause such a rapid onset of pitting. I suppose I'll also need to replace the fork tube. Have I starting cursing yet?
Fork tube pitting after upgrade?
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flash2002
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:38 pm
- Location: Montreal, Canada
- Motorcycle: gold wing 1800
2003
Re: Fork tube pitting after upgrade?
If the leak is on the left side there is a good chance it is due to the anti-dive, it blows seals, most people cancel the anti-dive. There is a good chance the pitting on the tube is stones from the road. Just try to sand them with emery cloth so there is nothing to catch the seal.
Re: Fork tube pitting after upgrade?
The pitting is too serious to smoothed out, and because there's a lot of it in small spots front and rear, I don't think it's from road debris. Am engineer friend who's been riding and wrenching Wings for maybe 2 decades wonders if it might have to do with the SuperBrace, thinking that preventing flexing might be causing it to come into contact with the backup spacer.