Leaky Fox Talas

Huck Finn

I bought a 2010 stumpy expert second hand yesterday and have noticed today that there is oil appearing above the right hand seal wiper on the Fox Talas fork. The guy said it was serviced in March and the stanchion is not marked or pitted in any way. Is this a common issue and will my forks get damaged if I use them like this?

cooldad

A slight misting on both would be normal (leaving tidelines). Depends what you mean by appearing and what he means about servicing.

Huck Finn

I'm not sure about his servicing to be honest. The lower headset bearing was completely wanked when he'd told me everything was new and slick. I'm tempted to send them straight to Mojo just in case. There is no oil at all on the left side but after wiping dry right side and cycling forks a few times, it's 'wet' with oil again above wiper. Forks also making a squishing noise but as I've not set them up for me yet it could be a rebound thing I think.

386ka

If they were serviced by an authorised service, I would guess that it had new seals installed. The new SKF dust wiperss were not installed in the 2010 forks and before, so see if it has them. They are easier to distinguish, the new SKF seals have square edge, while the older ones have more of a lip.

http://www.sicklines.com/news-images/sk ... sealss.jpg

(And more importantly, there is SKF writing on them!)

Huck Finn

Thanks for the info. I'll check today when I get home from work.

Dirtydog11

It depends what he meant by serviced, he may have just dropped the lowers and done an oil change and not changed the seals.

If in doubt buy some SFK seals and replace them yourself, it's easy to do.

Remove the lowers, once they're off you can use an open ended spanner to lever out the old seals, replace, fit lowers and fill with recommended amount of oil.

Note: Mine don't leak oil onto the stanchions which suggests yours are worn!