XJ leacking fork and recurring jammed brakes

[Luca Baldesi]

Gosh !

My XJ right fork is continuoysly leacking oil!
I have changed unsuccessfully four oilseal (local staff at 2$ each but no problem for the left f.), polished the pipe, cecked all over without find any possible cause (actually I fund that the rebouncing springs are missing in both f. (?)).

Also my front brakes start jam regularly every few months, seals should be fine even if local neoprene at 1.5 $ each.

Any advise ?

Luca

[Bill]

Re: XJ leacking fork and recurring jammed brakes

Luca wrote:

...my front brakes start jam regularly every few months

The most common cause of locking brakes is a blocked fluid return hole in the master cylinder. Check this tech tip:

Brakes Not Releasing?

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

XSively,

[Jerry]

Spring for a set of Yamaha OEM seals. 2 reasons:

1. They fit properly. In the past Dennis Kirk and other vendors have mis-labeled replacement fork seals. There is about 1 mm difference between the Standard and Special/XJ seals.
2. They work well.

Do a search on "fork seals" using the Search tab at the top of the Forum page. You will see a lot of postings about installing seals, tools used, problems, and results.

[Do Lee]

Also you need check for pitting on your inner fork that travels through the seal and also check for roundness on the inner fork. If there is any nicks or scratches or small pits on the portion of the tube that slides through the seal can eventually cause leaking. I had a similar problem with a standard xs1100 where costumer kept comming back with seal leaks, replaced with Yamaha seals each time. Within a few month after seal replacement costumer would returm with same problem. After 3rd time found out costumer had lost control of the bike going into a corner a laided the bike down with the front end of the bike hit the curb slightly bending the front forks. One of his friends at work helped him to straighten out his forks with a hydraulic bench press and made a flat spot or maybe I should call it an oval fork tube by over pressuring the fork tube with force and not using any suppports or a wooden spacer to protect the fork which over a period of time the fork seals started to leak.

[Luca Baldesi]

X Do Lee.........

Yes! your idea seem to me the most possible to have happen,

my XJ has been badly taked care for years before I bought it, and here where I live there are no spares and no real mechanics either.

But my point is what can I do now?

-Is it possible to recrome the fork pipe and may be pass it on the lathe ?
Is there any other possible cause , any guide or missing part to keep it on guide.
Are the rebouncing (missing) spring really unecessary ?

Greetings,

Luca

[Ken Talbot]

Luca, are you saying there are no springs inside of your forks at all? What is holding the front end up? The springs are a critical part of the front end suspension and if they are gone, maybe that's part of the reason your fork seals are not lasting??

[Luca Baldesi]

X Ken,

What I meant was that,

of course there are the main springs (Parts catalogue n.10m-23141-00-00) but I recently fund out that are missing the rebound springs (Parts Cat. N. 10m-23151-00-00) surely lost in some Bagalore"s lousy workshop ages ago before I bought the bike.

So I was asking if they may have caused some troubles........but actually in the the left fork is missing as well and no problems, so.........



Greetings,

Luca

[Ken Talbot]

Now I understand a little better. However, I'm still as baffled as you about why one side leaks and not the other. Logic wold say that if the missing spring was causing a problem, it would do it on both sides. Do you run with airpressure in the forks and maybe too much pressure has blown the seals??