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Rancho Cucamonga, CA
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hubbardmx50
11/13/2019 9:21am
11/13/2019 9:21am
Hey guys, my dad has a 2010 Ducati Hypermotard that has been giving him a hell of a time for awhile now. He’s been through about four seals on his right fork leg and we can’t seem to figure out. I do the suspension on all of our moto bikes and scotch bright always does the trick for a leaking seal. But clearly there’s a bigger problem on this fork leg and he’s had it. Ducati does not sell the tube individually and the only seller on eBay who had some was in France and sold them all. Does anybody know of a company that could possibly refurbish and or coat the leg for him? I’m trying to get a hold of Enzo today with no luck yet. We’re in SoCal but don’t mind to ship. Thanks
Any suspension shop that does coatings should be able to do it for you. The suspension isnt that much different compared to an mx bike.
The Shop
You will have to polish out the affected area, then coat it. But if you removed too much material in polishing you'll still have issues. It depends on how deep the problem is whether or not it can be fixed. Some people have had luck filling it with JB weld or similar and sanding it down. That's probably worth a shot first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5goYiEF5Ig
There is another newer process where the plating material is shot on under high pressure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8-aibcofM8
Your problem is what's referred to as shaft to bore misalignment (STBM). STBM is induced by the centerline of the shaft (lower leg) and housing bore (upper housing) not being on the same plane.
The most common cause for this issue is a bad/worn set of bushings. Another issue can be a bent lower fork tube, say from hitting a pot hole or doing too many steppes over time. To check lower and upper tube straightness, you have to rotate them through 360 degrees on V-blocks while measuring with a dial indicator.
My advice.....buy a full set of OEM bushings and seals and the problem will likely be solved.
What I do know is that the bushings look trashed after a few hours of riding (copper color is worn off), the oil is silver in color and the seals appear to be in good shape. Ive used an assortment of replacement parts and I've even ordered OEM Kaw seals and bushing for the last installation. The dlc on the lower shafts appear to be in great shape and i had racetech re hard anodize the fork tubes in fear that inner factory silver ano was defective and contaminating the oil.
I'm open to suggestion
I'm a stickler for pumping and torquing the front end so i know the front end isn't binding. Its a good observation though.
I've never plated motorcycle fork tubes, but I've plated 10's of 1000's of OD/ID rings and tubes of all sizes .25 up to 16" and can accurately plate to within .000010 millionths.
If anyone has any extra fork tubes they want to send me, I'd really like to try re-chroming some. I can measure and then strip off original chrome and re-plate to the original thickness. I'd prefer to do this on an extra set that might have otherwise been thought of as trash if possible lol...
I'm not trying to make money of this either.. Just want to see if I can help. jcrowe660@gmail.com
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