Front Fork Seals

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Brooking 850

Brooking 850

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i am still having a few issues with fork seals in my race bike.
The forks are standard Roadholder with Lansdowne inserts, front RHS disc with standard caliper and upgraded pads, master is a standard item with madass140 upgrade. Sliders have JS Motorsport trucite bushes and are very slippery.
Last race meeting was very wet at times and I tend to lose confidence with the front end due to patter from stiction when there is no weight on the forks. IE under heavy braking fine, on the gas fine, off the gas and off the brakes I have stiction.
Stanchions are straight , no bushing bind, all comes back to seal stiction.
Who uses what in theirs?
Regards mike
 
Seals have had very little development , duel lip have a higher drag factor, Not a lot of choice ,but adding some STP anti friction additive could help.
Failing that have the stanchions PTFE coated?
 
Hi Mike, have you tried the "leak-proof seals" . They are softer than original, being double lipped on the inside and outside [ no steel outer ]. I got mine some time ago from Nes [ Classic Cycles ]. Bit more awkward to fit [ and they were fitted in a hurray with the least amount of dismantling ] but they were good. Must have done 10,000 miles on them so far with original forks [ ie they are probably worn ]. Only started leaking again during the south island Rally but don't seem to have leaked since.
 
The seals of today seem to not be up to it like the orginal ones, I have used them all and most have failed with only low miles on them, the orginal seals lasted for ages, well over 40,000 miles, but these days if you get over 5,000 miles out of your seals you are doing good, but they should last a lot longer than that a lot longer, I have even tried industral seals in my forks with some minor resuilts, so good luck with your search, I have had seals fail with just a short ride, it can get so frastrating.
I never throught about putting some STP mixed with my fork oil I think I will give that a go as I use it in my motor oil, John how much STP do you mix in with the fork oil ???

Ashley
 
Aw ashman them is healing words to me bring understanding of my Trixiie brake side drool after deer strike repair 7-8000 miles prior. A mystery why only one side leaks though. Also depressing scope of review and wonder if they decay in storage like rubber bands and pencil erasers.
 
Those Leak Proof type seals I love . You just have to understand that they are not fixed in place and need a little up and down movement to work their magic.
 
10% for starters, This reminds me of my last visit to the classic bike show, there was a guy showing off a super lube additive , a wheel was spinning and a drop of oil from your choice used to coat the wheel,then a torque was applied by a long bar[brake]. Within seconds the wheel driven by a small motor stopped.
But when the SUPER lube was added it was impossible to stall the wheel. some refined PTFE was used.

ashman said:
The seals of today seem to not be up to it like the orginal ones, I have used them all and most have failed with only low miles on them, the orginal seals lasted for ages, well over 40,000 miles, but these days if you get over 5,000 miles out of your seals you are doing good, but they should last a lot longer than that a lot longer, I have even tried industral seals in my forks with some minor resuilts, so good luck with your search, I have had seals fail with just a short ride, it can get so frastrating.
I never throught about putting some STP mixed with my fork oil I think I will give that a go as I use it in my motor oil, John how much STP do you mix in with the fork oil ???

Ashley
Click to expand...
 
Thanks guys, seem everyone has their favourites, will try Johns STP additive as well.

A couple of seals turned upin the mail today from a mate who swears by them, the only ID on the packet is FSK-003
Will try them and give some feed back, they have a rubber coated body.

hobot, one of the reason I had trouble with some brands of seals is that they were leaking between the outer seal housing (steel)and the slider body where they are seated , not an interference fit.
Tried RTV product but never worked under extreme braking pressure, you may need to look there.
Regards Mike
 
Thanks Ludwig, yes these seals from ARI did come up from a friends advice, he tried to secure some me for although sent the FSK-003 ones instead, just wondering if they are the same under another trade name as the -003 is the same.
He also mentioned that I might need to wet and dry the outside rubber coating to get them to fit, which is tha same advice you give.
Regards Mike

Front Fork Seals
Front Fork Seals
 
Hi Mike, did you do an assembly of the front end without the springs fitted and wheel on to check the fork alignment?

I used to find at the top of the hill on the start finish area my front end would patter.

Does not do it now since Robert Taylor took out the .85kg/mm and fitted .95kg/mm springs ( linear) and secret :roll: Ohlins fork oil.

I took my Commando forks apart a while back and was expecting something more 'unapproachable' than a couple of bushes.... :wink:

Front Fork Seals

Your going to stick that on the forum aren't you
Click to expand...

Yup
 
Hi John a good days racing, thanks for the pic!!!
Still doesnt help me to go quicker than Adrian.

Yes have done a full alignment everywhere, will do it again though as a check once the new seals are in

Just about to watch NRL State of Origin!!

Regards Mike
 
That size/model certainly covers a lot of makes and models!!!

The dimensions of the pics I posted are 48mm OD 33mm ID and 11mm HT
Regards Mike
 
Hi Mike,

On paper the FSK-003 are listed as 35x48x11


Our stanchions measure 34.5mm

So if your seal ID measures as 33mm we should be in the right ballpark.
 
Yes they sem to slide well down a spare stanchion I have tried them on, better then the ones I already have
Regards Mike
 
May by some thing to do with the "chrome" finish , it's surprising how surface finish can effect the friction , proper hard chrome stanchions are polished as they have the thickness of chrome to start with, if required some long strokes [along the length] with 2000 wet in dry and fine polish will greatly improve the surface .
Most stanchions today have chrome put onto the ground size ..if the grinding is poor..then the chrome finish can have micro ridges ..dragging at the seal.
 
The Ariete seals were ordered and arrived in the post yesterday morning.

Quality seems great, they fit over the stanchions well, and as mentioned before by @ludwig, they will need some dressing with wet and dry so they fit well in the slider recess.

The material they're made from seems of closed cell construction compared to the standard Norton seals i have played with in the past - like the rubber is more dense.

They also have to steel springs in them to make sure the seal grips around the stanchion.

Pretty nice quality, and not outrageously expensive if they last well... time will tell on that one!


I have tried to take some pictures for anyone that is interested.
 

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Hmm. Just received my set of seals, and there is no sachet of lube, not is it marked as XNBR... it's a flat plastic bubble pack, not quite the same as yours. Wonder if it's a far eastern copy?
/Steve.
 
Recieved a reply from the manufacturer:
"I enclosed the page of our catalogue so you can see the original logo of our GENUINE fork oil seals line!! We added to ARI also THE ORIGINAL because of a lot of copies.

ARI (the beginning of ARIETE company name) is a specific product line dedicated to fork oil seals. We have 163 models and they equip more than 36.000 motorcycles from 1960s till now.

We use a pack with transparent material (the vacuum system damages the lips of the seals!!!), the production is made in Italy and we use XNBR compound which is a special rubber material to resist against the abrasion metal-rubber.
We also include for free a bag of special grease ARISIL (from ARIETE company and SIL from silicone) which is a grease silicone base to make longer the XNBR seal life"

I've started a return case via ebay for these seals, so I'm waiting now to hear the result. it's not a lot of money (around 11 euros or so), its more the principal.
 
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