K11 Owners Group

philosophicalzombie · Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 2:40 pm Post subject: Fork Oil Leakage after hauling

Hey All,

I just moved my 1993 K1100RS cross country in a semi trailer with a pile of other household items. I did not drain it. However, it turns out that The Dummy Who Loaded It (or his minions) piled crap on top of the bars, which depressed the forks for 3200 miles. The result: a nice couple of dinner plates of fork oil on the floor of someone else's trailer. So:

1. How to clean it? Kitty litter then a degreaser?
2. How to check the level? I did the seals on one side a while back and seem to recall that there's no way to check levels. I don't recall which side I replaced.
3. From what I can tell, the fork oil came out of the end - either the little fill hole or the very bottom. Is this 'normal' as a result of long-term compression? Or does long term compression pop the seals (hopefully not).

Thanks. I haven't posted here in a while.

Signed,

The Dummy Who Loaded it
_________________
Blake
Mariposa, CA

1993 K1100RS Mystic Red

philosophicalzombie · Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 3:26 pm Post subject:

FWIW:

Upon further inspection, it has actually leaked out of the top part of the fork at the seal. The fork is oily and the oil ran down the outer tube to the bottom and then dripped onto the floor of the trailer.

I'm guessing it busted the seal due to the long term pressure and compression and jostling over the long haul.
_________________
Blake
Mariposa, CA

1993 K1100RS Mystic Red

Jim · Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 5:25 pm Post subject:

Yeah - some kind of oil absorbent material - then degreaser. If it's a wood floor, it's in there. Hope he doesn't want you to buy him a new trailer.

Yeah - it would be the seals. Time for a rebuild...

I don't even compress the front forks when I tie the bikes down on the trailer.
_________________
Jim
1997 K1100LTSE 94,000 - has gremlins!
1995 R100RT Classic 16,650 crashed - repairing
1992 K75RTP 46,000

"We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."

philosophicalzombie · Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:35 pm Post subject:

Thanks.

I used corn starch to soak up the oil, swept it out, and then used a kitchen degreaser to clean it up. Fortunately, it was only on the metal part of the trailer and it cleaned up fine. Since it looked 'cleaned' I scrubbed the rest of the trailer and hope they think I'm just good with the follow-through....

I'll tackle the forks later. - Blake
_________________
Blake
Mariposa, CA

1993 K1100RS Mystic Red