Seal Mate repair of fork seals.

http://www.sealmate.net/

 I ordered one of these kits for my Goldwing but ended up replacing seals instead.  Anyway a week or so  my SWing dripped a small amount of ATF out of right fork leg.  Anyway, I dug out the Seal Mate and watched the video and gave it a shot.  Goldwing seals cost over $250.00 USD at a reputable shop.  I followed the directions as stated in the video and was amazed at how EASY it was.  With over 70 miles on it since the service it is not leaking!!!  Must have had a little something stuck in the seal.  I only have 4 years and 18K on my scoot and figured the seals should last longer than that.  VERY happy camper.

For less than 10 bucks US I would heartily recommend this BEFORE investing in new seals!!!

I suspect that my fork has a small leak (17100 miles 2012) Is the ATF pinkish? Thanks for this timely post, doing a search on leaky forks was on my list.

Yes the fluid is pinkish; which is why I assumed it is ATF or something close! For the price it is sure worth a shot! I intend to carry the Seal Mate in my tool kit for use on trips!

How is the seatmate applied? Sounds like you did not have to remove the forks.

Seal Mate is a tool, some make one out of an old credit card. Not wanting to do that is one reason I use a set of fork gaiters on my S'Wwing, removable / cleanable cheap insurance.

Check out the video I posted above... Very specific and easy to do. And I try and keep my forks as clean as I can.

UPDATE: It is September 14 now and the repair has 2500 miles on it with still no leaks!!! For the price I would certainly recommend trying this product. The worse thing that could happen is you are out 5-10 bucks and it doesn't work... In my case it probably saved me hundreds. I thought it was "snake oil" but not so.

It's easy to make a seal scraper out of an old milk jug. I prefer them over thicker plastic because it doesn't pry the seal away from the fork tube as much.

Replacing seals that are shot isn't a difficult job. I've replaced the fork seals in all models of the Goldwing except the 1800 in my old shop. Takes about an hour if you've done it before and have the tools on hand. I haven't tried it on a SW yet but it shouldn't be difficult. Just a bit messy due to the dirty old oil in the sliders. It's always worth running a finger around the fork tubes just above the sliders to see if there's any oil on them. That way you can catch a leak before it gets bad.

The best thing I've found to make this tool is a 2 liter soda bottle. It's already curved and nice and think. I've fixed several leaking forks this way.

I just ordered two of these Sealmates. One for each bike. Cheap fix in my opinion. I don't have any leaking forks now but you never can tell.

Good deal, but you only need one. The tool is reusable pretty much indefinitely.

Some people us film negative the same way this tool is being used. I suppose one could cut the negative in the same shape. The negative is strong and thin.

That should work just fine, except what is film negative? I just have batteries in my camera.

Reg wrote:

Some people us film negative the same way this tool is being used. I suppose one could cut the negative in the same shape. The negative is strong and thin.

I tried this and my old film negative was too brittle. Old being key word here, not many folks would have fresh film around

One thing I tried is a piece of plastic cut off a cheap window blind. Can be cut to proper size and works fine (I tested it).