Ck your nut's!

[tom_hudson]

I went out this morning to the garage - big puddle of oil in the area of my right fork! Crap! I got her jacked up & pulled the axle to see what was going on - good thing the fork drain bolt is above the axle or it would have fell out - Tighten the bolt back up Added fresh fluid - Bingo - no more leak! So just a reminder to check our bolts & nuts once in awhile - tom

[Barry]

good thing the fork drain bolt is above the axle or it would have fell out -

If it's the big Allen screw  #17 in the recess above the axle it's also the only thing holding the fork leg on !!!

[montmil]

You're fortunate that the screw tightened up for you. It's more common to require removing the fork spring, adding 14-inches worth of extension to a ratchet and holding the internals with a socket to prevent the Allen screw from just spinning the internals. I've never been that lucky. Hopefully, it did indeed tighten up.

You did check the other fork leg?

The small bolt, #11 and its crush washer #10, secure the drain port. Use caution in torquing the puppy back home. Very easy to strip the threads in the aluminum fork lowers.

Two different quantities specified for the fork fluid refills. One for simply draining through the port; another for a complete draining of the fork lower.

Monte

[tom_hudson]

thanks Monte - it tighten right back up - & the other side was fine - Guess I lucked out this time - I took it on a little 40 mile ride yesterday over some fun roads - Floor in the shop was dry this morning - tom

[nhmaf]

As the others pointed out - it is NOT the drain bolt, but it WILL drain all that leg's fork fluid out if it isn't sealing against the bottom.

When refurbishing/rebuilding forks, that little aluminum crush washer up under that allen-bolt should be replaced as a matter of course - they cost about a dime or so.   Sometimes once gets lucky and can successfully re-use them, but the last time I did this, it didn't seal, cause all the fork oil in that leg to drain out while riding 40 miles over bumpy tarmac, and coated the brake rotor with fork oil.   The loss of braking power was the first indicator that something was going seriously wrong.   So, I had saved a dime, but ended up buying new brake pads and having a slower ride back home to re-do the fork filling, etc.- fortunately the LS has dual front brakes!  I won't try to save that dime again.