Archive for the ‘Fork Seals’ Category

This is a customer’s bike that had some serious carburetor issues.  It was having trouble starting and coming off an idle, but eventually got so bad it would not even run.  I went into the carb several times and did find some clogged orifices that once cleaned, caused the bike to run a little better, but the main problem was 2-fold:

• Bent Needle.
• Bad gas.

The WR comes with a non-adjustable needle, so I removed the bent one and installed a new yz-style adjustable needle.

It’s surprising how fuel can go bad so quickly and can even come from the pump bad.  Also, there was no “bad-fuel” smell when smelling the fuel in the tank, but I am certain it was bad because after correcting the needle and jetting, I installed my YZ tank onto the WR with fresh race fuel and it ran perfect, but when switching back to the WR tank, would not even run.

So after draining the fuel, re-jetting, and installing some new fork seals, this bike is ready to go.

Here is the jetting that worked well for me:

Elevation:  2500 ft.
Main:            175
Pilot:               42
Leak:               40  (this helps increase the initial squirt of fuel from the accelerator pump, and decrease bogging)
Air Screw:     2.0 turns out.

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This is a customers bike with leaking fork seals.  The pictures below show some of the process in replacing them.  the WP forks are a little different than your typical showa or kyb’s, but the same fundamentals are there.  If your fork legs look like the legs in the 3rd pic, then its probably time to replace them.  If you continue to ride on them leaking, it will get on your brake rotors and pads, effectively reducing your stopping power and eventually your forks can loose enough fluid to stop dampening.  Contact me when its time to replace your seals!

[View with PicLens]