Fork seal leak

[deckerjr]

 I am thrilled to report that my second attempt at the film trick seems to have cleared up my leak. I have cleaned up the mess it had been making and now wonder about refilling the fork.  Can I get some input on the best way to fill and measure to avoid overfilling? I remember someone using a ziptie for a dipstick and am open to any other methods that don't involve taking the forks apart. Thanks in advance for all the great feedback you guys give.

[Gryphon Rider]

If it was a small leak that you took care of fairly quickly, I can't see there being enough fluid loss to bother with the hassle of adding fluid.  If fork stiffness seems normal, leave it alone until you eventually change seals.

[3fan4life]

I agree that it would depend on your estimate of the fluid lost.

Mine sprung a leak yesterday, but the leak is so severe that I decided not to even try the film trick.

Besides with 76k on the clock I figured she deserved new seals and springs.

[deckerjr]

It seemed minor at first, did the film trick(not deep enough). Then expected to change seals and drove on it for quite awhile and lost a fair amount of fluid. I would have a hard time estimating but it kept leaking the whole time after riding I would have it run all the way down to the garage floor. A lot of it slung up on the timing belt cover and other places. I would have to guess that I lost all of what was stored in the space between the inner tube and outer tube and some that would have been displaced from the inner tube from the spring compressing. Not sure how much that would be.

[Daniel Meyer]

There is about a quart of oil in that fork. That is a LOT of oil when spilling somewhere...

Unless it was running across the garage floor and dripping off the exhaust tips I wouldn't sweat it until you're ready to change the seals.

[Valker]

There is about a quart of oil in that fork. That is a LOT of oil when spilling somewhere...

Unless it was running across the garage floor and dripping off the exhaust tips I wouldn't sweat it until you're ready to change the seals.

Yeah, mine leaked so long I started to call it the "Exxon Valdez". When I replaced the seals, I couldn't even tell there was some missing when I poured out the rest!