Hi Guys!

A week ago I visited my KLX that's been sitting in the garage since September, I noticed that the left fork was leaking quiet a lot of oil. It really surprised me because when I put the bike away months ago it wasn't leaking at all. So I guess it's time to change the seals.
But I'm not really sure whether I should replace the seals only or buy a whole kit with the bushings as well. Not planning on disassembling the forks before I got all the parts to replace so I solely rely on your experience on this one. The bike is from 2009, with around 35.000 KM.

I would be curious about brand recommendations, and a good place to buy these seals (or the kit) from inside Europe. Also some information about the fork oil would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

Sometimes what seems like a lot of oil can turn out to be a small amount. My sons KLX fork had been leaking for a "while." Since this was one of 3 in his quiver, we (I) ignored the leak. That was until I went to visit (and ride our dirt bikes - (KDX & KX-F) and his KLX woudn't start due to bad gas. So I trailered the bike some 400 miles back to my house to I could rebuild the carb. (Another story some other time) When I got to my house I noticed spots of oil on my trailer and a trail of oil stain on his rim and tire just below the fork.


At 11 oclock is from trailering. At 6:30 is from once off loaded.

I pulled the fork, drained the oil into a measuring beaker just to see how much was lost, which turned out to be a minimal amount. I poured it back in the fork, brought it back up to the recommended amount and decided to use the Risk Racing Seal Doctor first before replacing the fork seal. Shortly after the first cleaning it started to leak again so I did the process again.


Fork compressed with paper towel to detect any oil leaking from seal.

The second time worked, so I drained and refilled the fork with clean fresh oil. After more than 5 months I still have the bike and have been riding it at least two times a week and the fork is dry. BTW- will be taking the bike back to my son in about a month along with my KDX for some woods riding.

Here's a link for the Risk Seal Doctor.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/29291010784...MaAlYMEALw_wcB

You may want to try this before replacing the seal(s).

 

Not a bad idea trying the Seal Doctor, but the product + the shipping costs as much as 3 sets of new seals, which is a dealbreaker for me. But since I have a 3D printer, I'm thinking about printing something like the Seal Doctor. Could you please measure the thickness of your seal doctor to give me an idea how thick I should print?

 

The link I sent was for free shipping. Checking your profile it appears you're in Hungary so I can see where the shipping charges & shipping time wouldn't be worth it. You can try a business card and I've also heard of using a cut plastic milk jug. The thickness of the Seal Doctor is about the thickness of a plastic jug at the point or hook, from there it increases to about twice that thickness. Note the hook which is designed to help flush the debris out of the seal.

Hope this helps!

 

It helps a lot, thank you!

 

Yea, just get a milk jug with heavy plastic and cut it as per the image (the hook part, the rest doesn't matter much). Try and hook all the trash out of the seal.

 

I'm definitely gonna try that, the only thing holding me is that milk jugs in Hungary rarely exist.....but pretty sure I can find one somehow

 

Also, loosen up the top fork cap and release any pressure that has built up in there. I had a leak and when I loosened up the cap I could hear the pressure release. That and the seal doctor did the trick.

Toph