Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

Well as the drz forum is a bit useless at getting speedy replies I thought I'd ask you loverly bunch instead.

The Brief:
I bought a set of drz forks from a reputable salvage seller on ebay over 3 months ago, did the usual bounced on them stlye inspection when they arrived as I knew it would be a while until they were fitted to the bike. Everything seemed great so I left my feed back etc and put them to one side.

The Issues:
Fast forward to last weekend, they've been serviced and installed on the drz... now they've been on a few days and each day I've gotten home a roughly equal amount of oil appears to be on the stantion lowers. Im confident that there are no issues with the service / seals so there must be a greater problem.

The Problem:
So, I've contacted the seller to ask his/her view on the faulty item. Despite having messages from back then which clearly state they're leak-less and straight etc the seller has said they can do nothing as their 90 guarantee has now expired and they have no record of the transaction etc.

The Questions:
Can they be fixed (I dont think the issue is a dodgey seal Im pretty sure the problem is related to some corrosion on the inside of the fork upper, which in turn is preventing a good seal)?

Or are they now well over priced paper weights?

Can I do anything to recoup any money from the seller?

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

I can only think of two options, take/ send them to a suspension specialist and ask them to check them.
Or,
Maybe set up some kind of pressure check with compressed air and a gauge and see if you have pressure drop on them, I'm not an expert on forks tbh sp just thinking out loud.
Seals are probably most likely cause in these type of leaks I'd guess though.

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

Indirectly yeah I suspect it is the seal, but not in the sense that the seal is the actual problem.
Seals are brandnew reputable seals, but like I mentioned there was some corrosion on the inside of the fork upper. I would suspect that the problem lies with this corrosion damaging the seal on its way to been seated, any replacement seal would suffer the same fate unless the damage to the upper internal can be sorted.

Anyone know of a fork specialist who may be able to take a look?

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

you bought them from ebay 3 months ago and at the time they were fit for purpose. you had them serviced since you bought them. so in brief i think your stuffed. i know if it were me i would tell you to 0898 dooone.

is there any pitting on the tubes? if so that's what is wrecking your seals. who ever serviced them should have notified you if there was a problem.

it may be that there was an amount of oil between the seal and the dust cap and its weeping. this should disappear in time that is unless it a heavy deposit of oil each time.

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

Out of interest matt, wassup with old ones ?

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

Phil,
Nothing wrong with the old ones, I just fancied a set of the USD ones to make it properly supermoto. Yet to decide on it Im going to sell the enduro forks/yolks etc If i do ever get to go green laning plenty of people do it on the SM spec bike but with the enduro rims popped on, so I wont be required to do a full front end swap each time it'll purely be the wheels which need switching.

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

i very much doubt that corrosion on the upper would cause problems with a good seal. it would more likely be the lowers of USD forks that would cause the problems e.g. scored or rough surface. what might cause problems is if the uppers were oval at the seal surface which in turn would cause the seal to sit oval or the inner bushing is worn alowing the tube to move back and forth/rattle in the stancheion.

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

Firstly, you need to establish without doubt that it is a dodgy purchase. Only then will you be able to do anything about it.

Saying it's "probably a bit of corrosion" causing them to leak doesn't cut it, you need to have 100% irrefutable proof that corrosion was there when you bought them, and I reckon that's where you'll trip yourself up because you've left it far too long.

Unless you've got very damaged fork uppers, there's no way the seal can be damaged by the upper when fitting. Also, if there was some corrosion, why wasn't it cleaned up and treated when the forks were apart prior to rebuild? If they didn't leak when you bought them and only leak now since you stripped and rebuilt them, then I'd say the fault lies at your door not the seller's.

Let me put it this way, if I sold you a set of forks 3 or 4 months ago and you came to me with that story, once I'd stopped laughing I'd tell you to do one.

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

Corrosion on the inside of the fork uppers? How the feck? They live in oil.

You can sometimes get damage there from dirt ingress but it does not move with respect to seal so can't hurt.

Re: Where do I stand on a dodgey purchase. (drz related)
 

You see it behind the seal on both types of forks, mainly on RWU because moisture collects behind the seal with nowhere to go. It's very rare on USDs but I have seen it on older or neglected bikes.