heat + fork seals = mess?

[callmelenny]

Anybody had a problem with heat causing failure of the fork seals?

I just trucked my GS half way cross the country in the back of my truck (with enclosure). When I unloaded today I notice oil on the bedliner and on my forks. There also seemed to be water droplets beading on the forks.

The only thing I can think of is that heat during the drive was enough to expand the fluid and force it out of the seals. This seems crazy though since the force of normal riding should be much greater. :dunno:

I guess I'll  pull the forks and see what the fluid level is like.

I replaced these seals last fall and have not had any problems over a few thousand miles of riding. I'm a bit puzzled and would appreciate any advice.

[sprint_9]

No never really had anything like that happen, it sounds rather strange really.  But heat will drastically affect the leak proof seals I have on my bike now, thats because when I get them off Im going to get the torch out and put them pyles of crap out of there misery. :dunno:

[Blueknyt]

no, thats the  forks pumping oil out past bad seals as the trailer bounces

[tkm433]

Anybody had a problem with heat causing failure of the fork seals?

I just trucked my GS half way cross the country in the back of my truck (with enclosure). When I unloaded today I notice oil on the bedliner and on my forks. There also seemed to be water droplets beading on the forks.

The only thing I can think of is that heat during the drive was enough to expand the fluid and force it out of the seals. This seems crazy though since the force of normal riding should be much greater. :dunno:

I guess I'll  pull the forks and see what the fluid level is like.

I replaced these seals last fall and have not had any problems over a few thousand miles of riding. I'm a bit puzzled and would appreciate any advice.

If you used tie downs to hold your bike in place for the trip you can run into problems if you attach the tie down to the bars and then tighten them up.  This tends to compress the fork and builds up presure in the fork legs.  This seems to be an issue in some cases with dirt bikes since I have seen spacers to go betwen the tire and the bottom of the fork lower triple to use while transporting the bike.

It seems like it should not be a problem sinc ethe fork is designed to compress under normal use but for  the few hours or days that you might of had it compresses might of been enough to cause such a problem.  

Also if you happen to of had to much oil in the fork legs for some reason this would of made problem worse since the oil had to go somwhere and the seals were the weak point in the system since they are soft.

[Lukewarm Wilson]

Have to agree with the tie down theory as the same thing happened to my DT175 on a trailer tied down from the bars 6 hours later it was dribbling down the fork legs, hmm might explane why I kept falling off that weekend :lol:    

[callmelenny]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The bike wasn't tied down. I put it on the center stand and all my ties were from the frame to the side of the truck.

That is why I'm so puzzled, there was little or no pressure on the suspension. When I loaded the bike it was fine, 3 days later when I unloaded it I had this problem. It was in an enclosed space in 100 deg temps for a couple of days so that is the only cause I could think of.

[Blueknyt]

granted but the front wheel was still in contact with the floor right? even little bounces from the trailer will do it.

[callmelenny]

Well I've read lots of posts about failure during transport, so I guess that what happened.

I just don't understand how the bounces in the back of a truck (which are dampened by the truck's suspension) can be more traumatic than  daily riding that includes an occasional bottoming out.

There was no load on the suspension at all during transport :dunno: