Riding trike with blown fork seals..

[short4stuff]

On my 200x the fork seals have been gone for awhile .. i am sure most if not all of the oil is out of them now ... when sitting on it I probably only have like maybe 2 inches of travel left.... I have been riding it awhile like this.. am I harming any internal parts?...

[Lasvegasrider]

Will running a motor without oil hurt it ;) ? Where's your sign? :beer

[short4stuff]

well what is it I am wearing out then ..

[Lasvegasrider]

There's brass bushings ,in there and and it will scar the chrome on the fork its selfand some other stuff , look in the book.

[trikezilla]

Its relatively cheap and easy to rebuild lol

[Huffa]

On my 200x the fork seals have been gone for awhile .. i am sure most if not all of the oil is out of them now ... when sitting on it I probably only have like maybe 2 inches of travel left.... I have been riding it awhile like this.. am I harming any internal parts?...

The oil mostly only dampens the travel. Your 2" left is most likely due to sagged out forks springs and most of all ..........don't ride it till it's fixed.

All kinds of metal parts in there to wear out. Did the oil weep down on the brake pads at all?

[MO350X]

Seals and oil are cheap but replacing damaged internals is not.
Go ahead and pull them apart but take the time to REALLY analyze the bushing and the chrome for scoring/scratching and the springs for correct length (in the manual, I believe).
If something is damaged, replace it.
If you don't, it'll only rear it's head later with another leak and possibly do more damage.

If you're not comfortable doing it, have a shop you KNOW and TRUST do it for you.
My local shop does BOTH forks, seals/fluid/labor for about $70 BUT I have it done the moment I detect a leak so no internal damage has occured.
So it's not worth me even getting my hands dirty!

[350x'inNY]

For about $60-$80, you can get Progressive Fork springs to replace the OEM springs. Very much worth it in my opinion. Have them in both 350X's and my 82R.

Bruce

[chris200x]

My forks do not leak but when I sit on the trike I can hear a squish kind of sound, like there is water in there or something. Now I'm not the lightest person in the world but it also seems to me like there is only about 2 or so inches of travel left. How exactly do you tell if the seals are bad and it's time for a rebuild?

[Dirtcrasher]

My forks do not leak but when I sit on the trike I can hear a squish kind of sound, like there is water in there or something. Now I'm not the lightest person in the world but it also seems to me like there is only about 2 or so inches of travel left. How exactly do you tell if the seals are bad and it's time for a rebuild?


Even rebuilt ones feel squisshy. Best thing to do is just rebuild them or send them to someone who does it (like me). If you pull the drain plug you will find nasty oil coming out of there and not the 7oz that you should have in them.
Leaking seals will weep oit onto the chrome leg and if you slide up your fork boot you'll find some oil or it's too low on oil to leak anymore.
Far too many neglect there fork oil and if you know what your doing it is an easy task but you must clean the guts spotless.
Heavy guys should run at least 1" spacers in the 200X forks.