LEAKING FORK SEAL - '13 Stelvio

[Spuddy]

Is this common under 10,000 miles? Is it difficult to replace the seal and wiper? What do I need to know before I tackle this myself?

Spud

[Phang]

one of the fork seals of my Griso started weeping at around 12,000 miles.

I bought the original seals, before I roll up my sleeve, I read about Sealmate.

I was skeptical at first but it cost almost nothing to buy one. So I bought one and MotionPro sent me two for the price of one.

It works 

[dlapierre]

The process worked for me, too. But, instead of buying one, I experimented with a piece of plastic cut the same way. Not to sound too cheap, I jut wanted to see if the idea was sound. It was.

[beetle]

Me too. I made one from a plastic bottle. It stopped the leak for a few thousand km. Then when it leaked again, I changed the seals.

[ITSec]

As has been noted, it's always worth a try to clean the seal first.

As for how long they last, that's sort of like asking how soon you'll get grit on the tube - because that's the usual cause for a leak and for seal damage. Sometimes they fail for other reasons, but that's the most frequent - especially if you use your Stelvio off pavement.

I has a fork seal go bad at about 17,000 miles on my Norge - cleaning didn't cure it, so I had it replaced with a third-party product. The bike now has 115,000 miles, and the fork seals are still good. I may replace them at my next major service, just as a preventive measure, since living in the Mojave combines a lot of sand and dust with a lot of heat and UV - all rubber killers.

[pmillar]

Well, you obviously need to stop popping so many wheelies as rough landings can lead to blown seals.    The cleaning suggestions are good as well as carefully looking at your forks for any nicks that might harm the seal. 

[Spuddy]

Well, you obviously need to stop popping so many wheelies

Fuggles, I didn't think of that...

Spud

[Green1]

I have used an old 35mm film negative to do that in the past,worked great

[Tom]

Yeah....when you drop it down, the extra weight of the chair makes it hard for the oil to stay in.  Clean the tubes and refill with auto-trans seal treatment.  It should help till the end of the riding season.  Then you can work on it during winter.  You can use this seal puller without disassembling the fork.  Just remove the fork tube from the triple tree and remove the seal through the top of the fork.  Just make sure that there are no burrs on the whole tube.  I think I bought mine from Snap On or Carquest.

 http://www.sears.com/lisle-automotive-repair-tools-shaft-in-seal-puller/p-SPM2374492414?plpSellerId=USAetail&prdNo=4&blockNo=4&blockType=G