Need fork seals/bushings in Chita or Ulan Ude
 

A friend is riding through Russia on a 2012 Super Tenere. Both fork seals blew out around Khabarovsk. I think he is somewhere between Svobodny and Chita.

Last year I was in Ulan Ude for 4 weeks,mostly waiting for a crankshaft to clear customs. I assume these seals and bushings would probably need to go through the same process. I don't want to see him wait as long as I did.

Hopefully the seals sizes can be found at a parts house. And possibly he could have the bushings made/machined if they are bad.

Something else I thought might work. If he gets to Ulan Ude, could his parts be shipped to the Oasis in Ulaanbaatar,Mongolia and possibly clear their customs faster. He could take the 10 hour bus ride down there and pick them up,then return to Ulan Ude for installation.

Any experienced thoughts on any of this?

Tell him to clean his fork seals. Often times leaking fork seals does not mean bad fork seals, it just means there is dirt stuck in them. I have done this about 5 or 6 times on my bike over the past 2 years on my RTW.

There are 2 seals. The dust seal on the bottom and the oil seal above that.
1. Pull the dust seal down and use a rag to get any dirt above it.
2. Use a thin piece of plastic like tearoffs for goggles, screen protector for cellphone, or even a glossy magazine cover.
3. Cut a piece that you can slide up under the oil seal and rotate it around the fork.
4. Do this 3 or 4 times and it should clear any dirt stuck in the oil seal that is letting out oil.


Here is a "how to" video. You don't need the Motion pro tool. Tech Lesson 11 | Cleaning Fork Seals - YouTube

I already suggested that. He said the spring was destroyed when it blew out.

All is good now. My friend got to Ulan Ude, and met the mechanic I stayed with last year. He got new seals and is putting them in.