My forks seem to have developed a small oil leek form the damping leg. On the bottom of the leg was a hex key damping adjuster thingy held in with an 'o' ring. Perhaps inevitably it's fallen out and got lost, that's no great problem as the damping can still be adjusted with an Allen key, however now after each ride I get a bit of oil drip out. So far the performance of the fork isn't affected at all, I know if the oil volume drops much the lockout stops working so the total loss must be pretty small.
Has anyone else had this problem? Where is the oil from, is it from the damper or from the few ml in the bottom of the fork leg? Which (if any) seals need replacing? Where can I get said seals? Should I just clean up the drips and forget about it? Will I die horribly in a ball of flames if I keep riding with a drip?
Thanks.
I'd have thought dripping from the bottom of the fork leg will be from the lower leg. This oil is for lubrication, not damping.
If you run out of lower leg oil you'll likely trash your stanchions and bushings so you do need to be careful.
As you say, loss of oil from the upper leg is when you'll lose damping.
I'd whip the lowers off and check you've got enough oil in the lowers. Oil is cheap to buy and I think toras use 15wt in lowers.
There are no seals to speak of on the bottom of the lowers, you just need to make sure the 5
m bolts are done up properly
That's what I first thought but if that's the case then why didn't I see it until the little adjuster thing fell off?
Last time they were serviced I think I put 10w in the lowers as I didn't have any 15, (still 5w in the damper though), could the less viscus oil contribute to the seeping?
Hmm doubt it. The difference between 10 and 15wt isn't huge. The rod in the damping side is partially hollow to allow the rebound adjustment thingy to turn, so perhaps oil is getting into it from the damping chamber and running down.
Try some different coloured oil in the lowers and see what colour oil leaks out? Or empty all the lowers oil, leave the fork for a few days and see if it's still leaking. You could even do this with the lowers off to see if oil leaks from the bottom of the damping chamber/rod overnight. Either way you'll get an idea where the leak is from.
No chance you've overtightened the right lower leg bolt and cracked the lowers or the bolt?
It's a known fault, you've probably got a faulty rebound damper cartridge, we've replaced loads on Dart and Tora forks under warranty.