Causes of scoring on fork stanchions?

[swarfegakid]

Hi, I've had my fork springs upgraded to proggresive springs on my curvy. They handle much stiffer now but I can see very faint vertical scratching on the stancheons since the last 50 miles since they were done. New fork oil, oil seals and dust seals and the mechanic said he put a bit of grease on the dust seal to prevent dry wear. Any ideas what could be causing the crome to look very faintly scored or scratched??

[joshwalker094]

Pictures?

[Mauler]

I'd say that they were either caused by mishandling while off of the bike while work was being done, or there's some hard/sharp substance caught in the seals that's scoring the tubes?

[missyburd]

I found out the other day that when you're back from a summer ride it's good to wipe the dead bugs from the stanchions...their guts are corrosive and can cause pitting. Crap stuck in the seals can cause it too as Mauler says.

[swarfegakid]

Cheers guys. I've had a couple of other issues too but sorted them. Misfire caused by old plugs and oil leak, New plugs and the back bank breather had popped off so it was weeping oil. I've monitored the scoring and it doesn't appear to be getting worse. The guy who did my springs and seals came to my garage today for car mot. I asked him about the scoring and he said he had turned the stancheons round so the back is now the front. He'd noticed slight scoring on my left leg and says it's nothing to wworry about. He said it was probably caused by my old dust seal being shagged allowing debris slightly score the legs. Good one to bear in mind though, wipe the corrosive bugs off. Good advice thanks :-)
worry abou

[Littlepeahead]

I've got neoprene tubey things on my GS to bug proof them because I know I'll never remember to wipe the bugs off.

[Red ones]

He'd noticed slight scoring on my left leg and says it's nothing to wworry about. He said it was probably caused by my old dust seal being shagged

I'm speechless!

[swarfegakid]

Oh dear, it appears the seals are leaking again. I don't know if the seals where cheep **** or if this faint slight scoring is to blame. Fork man says if I buy some genuine seals he will 're do them for me for free.

[Serdna]

That seems like a good offer from him. Take a picture of the leakage please. One of my fork stanchions was fairly scored and f'd up, i used some wet and dry to try take out the scores. I don't believe what i did had much impact on the scoring. Put it all together with decent seals and it works.

My mate on the other hand with similar forks and less scoring and damage replaced the seals at the same time with some funky triple lip seals that were supposed to be so good and his forks are literally ****ing oil.

[stuR]

I had a slight leak in some farly new seals, along with light scoring you couldnt feel. think its just trapped dirt marking the leg, but now cured the leak with a seal mate...best tool ever

[wideguy]

Other than for an FZR400 I had that started leaking around the fork seals on a yearly basis, I've never used anything but aftermarket fork seals, and I've had outstanding results.
BTW, OEM seals on the FZR400 didn't last any longer than the aftermarket items. No, nothing was wrong with the fork tubes or dust seals or internal bushings... and it was a track only bike... maybe it was caused by being tied down on a trailer so much being hauled around to various race tracks? Only wheelied a couple of times by mistake off the starting line... nice smooth tracks... Who knows?