Well in the event I’m posting something that’s already been covered, I apologize…..this issue seems to be a uniquely Laterider one, at least to me it is!
So let’s talk Laterider Fork Frustration…..
Early on in the spring, I noticed that my right front fork seal was leaking pretty badly, and it appeared as though a change in fork seals was the necessary cure. I ordered up a set of seals, and they arrived quickly, and I got to work on the project. Hat tip to 1Oldman for his exhaustive guide on how to do this job! Getting the fork tubes removed from the bike was a fairly easy job. Getting them apart was a bit harder, and required a trip to my father’s shop, where the good tools are.
Once the forks were drained (and my God that was really smelly as can be…..) and the forks were apart, we ran into some issues.
1. The tapered plastic “bushing”, for lack of a better word to describe it, the one that goes into the very bottom of the lower fork tube, was missing on the left side, present on the right.
2. The metal washer that goes under the fork seal in the lower fork tube was missing on the right side, and present on the left side.
3. The retaining clips were fairly questionable on either side, but better on the right.
4. In reassembly, we made a slight mistake, and got the “fork slider bushings” (is that the correct term) stuck and had to remove them, scratching the Teflon in the process.
Once they were all reassembled, we had a bit of a hodgepodge of correctness in these forks. The right side fork has that tapered plastic bushing thing, but no washer under the oil seal. And it doesn’t leak at all. The left side fork (the one that wasn’t leaking in the first place!) now spills a ridiculous amount of oil, and in fact has left a lovely drip patch on my garage floor, and wherever I park it at the office. This fork has no tapered plastic bushing in the bottom of the lower fork tube, but has the washer, but my father put the washer on TOP of the oil seal, instead of underneath it.
So I’m wondering…….
If I pull this left side fork tube, and disassemble it, and put the washer where it belongs, do you think that will cure the leak? I’ve acquired a brand new set of retaining clips, and replaced the sketchy one in the left side fork with the new one, and it didn’t help at all. Is it possible I simply got a bad seal? Would the scratched up slider bushings have anything to do with the leaking? Would I be better off simply acquiring a new set of forks, or at least a new left one that likely has all the necessary parts in it, and probably has unscratched bushings?
I’m wary of spending the time and effort to get this thing removed and torn down again, and then have it not fix the problem, because if that happens I’ll be way more upset and frustrated than I am now.
Thoughts?
