One front fork is leaking oil

[KLOWN]

One of my front forks is leaking oil, more correctly its hemorrhaging oil. Had a large (4-6 inches in diameter) puddle at the base of the bike (below forks) after I had it parked up overnight. So my question is this, how easy is it to do this myself? should i change the seals on both forks or just the one that is leaking? should I just take it to a shop? what kinda price am i looking at?

[wildpudding]

Your bike having USD forks, doing it yourself may be tricky, thought there's always this site to get info if you think you can do it.

To get a fork seal replaced on the fork of one of my bikes cost me $70. And that was taking in the fork with nothing else attached to it. The killer cost was labour, took 45 mins at $60 an hour...The actual seals dont actually cost that much.

Stefan

[vagrant]

Most usd forks are a pain in the ass to get apart without the right tools. If you are sort of handy with tools etc, and have the manual or instructions on what order to remove bits, then have a go.

Me, I pull the forks off the bike myself, and take them into the shop.
As Wildpudding said, the killer is the labour cost, and it can take a couple of hours to remove and refit the forks.

Get both forks done at the same time, as the oil will get changed out, and this can affect the damping rates of the legs.

And don't forget to deal to your brake pads and discs with a proper degreaser like brakeclean.

[steved]

If you take the forks out yourself and deliver them to a workshop, it shouldn't be anymore than $120 for both.

Agree with the others it is best to get both done.

[KLOWN]

cool, thanks for all the help guys. gonna try to take them off myself and drop them in some where.

[bistard]

Just one point to have a look at,I assume the leaking fork is off the ZXR400Sp you have,just have quick check of the chrome fork slider & make sure there is no corrosion/pitting or stone marks on the slider which have damaged the fork seal,as this will damage the new seal,also could take a little longer for the mechanic to fix,which means extra labour

[Tim 39]

Yea taking them to a shop is the best option, with USD forks you need a fork seal driver to get the seals in, and have to strip the whole fork to be able to do them (dampning rod and everything) usualy