I saw this a lot down here in FL when I worked in the bike shop, especially
with those bikes parked outside in the hot sun and the rain...the right
fork leg tilted towards the sun while on the stand...the sun will BAKE
that seal..and the rain will get in....while the left which is shaded more
looks fine

Connected by MOTOBLURb" on T-Mobile

-----Original message-----
From: Vladimir Ferdman <vferdman@gmail.com>
To: Sportster List <xl-list@sportster.org>
Sent: Thu, Mar 11, 2010 15:55:02 GMT+00:00
Subject: Oil discolored in one fork leg only - bad seal?

I am installing Ricor Intiminators <http://tinyurl.com/yzwkk9f> into
my front forks. This involves changing the oil to 5W. So, I drained
the oil I put into the forks at the later part of last riding season
(around September '09). Not too many miles on that fork oil. It was
your basic HD Type E fork oil that is colored bright red. When I
drained the oil out of the left fork leg it looked red as the day it
went in (well, almost, but pretty darn red). The right fork leg, on
the other hand was dark gray, almost black. I am assuming I have a bad
fork seal even though I do not see any leaking oil at all anywhere. Am
I correct in assuming the seal is compromised? Why else would the oil
get discolored so quickly. Especially when the other leg still has
clean red oil. I am going to take the "bad" fork leg apart and see if
anything obvious jumps at me, but in the meantime I am soliciting
opinions, suggestions, etc. Should I change seals, bushings and dust
seals or just the seal? Should I do both sides or leave the "good"
side alone? I am not into doing work I don't need to do (I'd rather
use that time to ride or take kids to the movies), so I am inclined to
leave the "good" leg alone since it is not exhibiting any signs of
wear.

Thanks, gang!

--
Vladimir
'04 tax-paid XL883
Pioneer Valley, MA