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Does anyone know for sure which way up the oil seal in a 888 are supposed to go? I failed to pay enough attention when stripping my forks at the weekend and now I have oil leaking out of the top of the right leg. Of course the seal could just be damaged but it was in pretty good nick when I dismantled it.
I have had a google about but I just get contradictory answers.
PSA (and in the hope that this post might be googleable for others in the same boat)
after giving up on the wisdom of crowds I decide to ask someone who actually knew what they were talking about, I rang Windwave yesterday to find out which way round the 888s oil seals go in.
Big groove facing the bottom of the fork.
Some threads I found suggested that the writing on the seal should be visible when placed correctly. This is apparently untrue and in any case there was no writing on either side of my seals.
Some posters have suggested that the spring should be visible when the oil seal is correctly placed, others that the spring should be facing the bottom of the fork. This is untrue as on 888s there are springs on both sides of the seal, although one is easier to see than the other.
Having turned the seal over with the big groove facing down, hey presto no leak from 4 year old seals 🙂
Did they suggest that the seals should be changed at any point? 4 years is old, but did they comemnt on that?
Hi molgrips, sorry for the slow reply, couldn't log in to the site for a while due I think to me mucking about with the security settings in Safari.
I tactically didn't mention the age of the seals. I had already stripped the fork and new they were in really good nick. I figured if i told them that not only had I re-used old seals and not replaced them as per the specific I striations in the manual (in bold, no less) that I would have difficulty getting them past that part of the conversation and on to the bit I was really interested in.
To be fair apart from a week in Whistler and 2 weeks in the Alps they bike has barely been used. IRS spent almost all that time hanging on hooks in the garage. In any case I have now flipped the seal over and it is working perfectly. lucky I guess but it's saved me £25 ?