Fork seals leaking @19,000 miles on ODO

[flynrider]

After using the Sealmate successfully on both CBs, I often wondered how difficult it would be to make my own, when needed. It's just a thin piece of plastic with a hook shape. I always thought a properly cut plastic playing card should do the trick.

Last week I got a chance to test my idea. On the way to Utah for a meeting with Frulk and Django, I noticed that the right fork seal on the CB750 had developed a substantial leak. Bad enough that I could see a large drop of fork oil form behind the tube every 10-15 min.

At one of my gas stops I was able to buy a pack of cards and a pair of scissors. When I arrived at my destination, I cut a card into the general shape of the Sealmate and gave it a try. That's when I found out that not all playing cards are plastic. These turned out to be plastic coated paper and started to come apart after a half turn around the seal. Not to be deterred, I just cut out several of them and cleaned out the seal a section at a time.

Overall, this experiment in roadside engineering was a great success. The fork was sealed up tight and hasn't dripped for 1,500 miles.