Leaking front fork seals??

[Earl in Pensacola]

A few days ago I spotteed leaking oil on the my left fork seal!  I started checking out parts costs and outside laobe, when I  remembered having bought for a couple of bucks, a "SEAL MATE" from someone on this site.  Chris has already tried it on another Valk riders fork seal and it worked, so we did my left seal and IT WORKED!!  No more leak.  (WWW>. SEALMATE.NET) It's a tool that works, it's cheap and all of us should have one in the tool box.
Earl

[Jess from VA]

Yeah Earl,  I have had an intermittent fork leak for several years now.  Right side small leak, left side just moisture on the tube.  I used 35mm film with some success, but it came back.  I got the Sealmate last year (MUCH better than film which kept crumpling up on me trying to saw it up and down around the legs).  It reduced the leak to almost gone.  But my last few rides this spring, the rt leak came back.  So, even thou I have a bag of all the fork repair parts (I am lazy and putting it off as long a possible), I did it again last week.

This time, after removing the fork rock guards, I purposely used the Sealmate in an alternating clockwise (wipe),  counterclockwise (wipe), fashion.  Maybe 8 times per side.  Then bounced the forks hard as I could, wipe, again, wipe, again..... and now my forks are dry as a bone.  I suppose I have lost some 2+ ozs, from the right, and maybe 1 oz from the left, but the bike is handling fine (thou no longer quite as stiff as my other IS which has never leaked, and which was hard as a rock after PS fork springs and new fork oil were installed years ago). 

I do not recall the Sealmate video using an alternating rotation method,  but I think this helped clean out whatever crud was causing my leaks better than any of my one direction earlier attempts.  Of course, if a leak persists after using a Sealmate, you may have a torn or damaged seal, which must be replaced and not cleaned.

FWIW.

[Chrisj CMA]

I have used the SealMate twice and twice it worked.  I dont use the "sawing" motion.  I remove the guard and pry the dust seal down and out of the way.  Stick that curved end in (angled forward) and drag/slide/push however you would describe it around just over 360 degrees and out clean and repeat until there are no particles coming out with the oil on the tool.

[Tailgate Tommy]

The Seal Doctor worked well for me and was easy to use after removing the fork protector. It's round and snaps around the fork tube and spin around a few times. It also has one side to use on the dust seal and a thicker side for the seal itself. I just popped the dust seals out with a screw driver.
http://www.riskracing.com/pages/Seal_Doctor_Page.html#.UhEGe3Xna00
tkylli

[Chrisj CMA]

I like that seal doctor thing, looks like they both do the same thing but the way it snaps on the fork tube would make it easier to use, but the seal mate is easier to carry on the bike...........either way they beat the snot out of the film trick

[CajunRider]

I use a similar "tool" regularly during sugarcane harvest season. 

All that mud on the roads creates havoc on the fork seals!!

It's the best (and cheapest) little tool I've ever bought!!  I need a new one though... I finally broke the tip (little hook shape) off.