Which way to put in fork seals?

[Yianna]

This must have been asked a billion times but here it goes: Which side is up on fork seals? From what I have read the side with the groove and the spring is inside the fork (down) and the flat side is outside (up) as explained in this image:

I installed mine wrong then. The old ones were installed the wrong way before and somehow got through an inspection in 2012 while being installed the wrong way.

Mine are leaking now and I drove them down by putting the old seal on top of it and hitting it carefully with a hammer. Could this have damaged them? Why do they leak if they are installed upside down? Why did only one of them start leaking before even though they were installed wrong all this time?

Should I just put them in the other way? I dont want to pay another 30€ for OEM seals but I dont want to take them apart again if they still leak afterwards.

[Joolstacho]

If put in properly they won't leak (unless the stanchions are pitted).
Sorry, but I wouldn't risk re-using the seals you remove, just not worth the grief - they quite likely will leak if re-inserted.
The open spring side always goes down - towards the enclosed oil filled region.
Make it easy on yourself, just get the right sized length of plastic plumbers or electrical conduit pipe, just a little smaller than the seal housing in the slider.
Tap the new seals in with this, I always make it even easier by warming (expanding) the slider, and putting the oil seal in the fridge to cool it.
You want to be tapping close to the outside perimeter of the seal, not close to the stanchion because that's soft rubber.
Try again, -lesson learnt!

[Jim Moore]

You need to do it again. Here's a pretty good video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrmYJgcGX30



Imo a fork seal driver is worth it's weight in gold. Like these (I'm not sure what size you need).

https://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/tools/category/fork_seal_drivers/

[Carltheproducer]

Please read my thread to see the quickest way to break the damper rod bolt from nut inside forks. http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=72508.0