• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st Cross

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Leaky Marzocchi Forks 2008 TE 450

B

Brad Gill

Husqvarna
B Class
I have a 2008 TE 450. 300 hrs on the motor and about 2,700 kilometeres. 90 - 95% off road ridden on logging roads and trails. I've had the bike for 2 years and have now had fork seals redone twice. Both times they have lasted only 5-7 days of off road riding before they started leaking again... I know these forks are known for leaking often but this seems ridiculous. Both times I had the bike serviced by the shop that sold it originally. I'm trying a different mechanic this time in hopes of a better result. The new mechanic recommended getting on the forums and checking to see what people are finding works and doesn't work for them.

I am looking for advice on what parts to buy for re-doing fork seals and bushings and where to buy them from.

Any help is appreciated!
 
Try to get hold of the non OEM green fork seals-cant recall the manufacturers name but they are brilliant with 3 intern lips and more flex. Make sure your forks are not worn internally, also that you are not tightening the forks too much as this can cause distortion in the stroke. After a hard ride expel the air from the top bleeder.
 
Make sure there isn't any burs on your fork tubes. Also, its imports at that hour front wheel is tightened properly so it isn't binding. I'm still on my stock fork seals. They weep now and then, but stop after cleaning them out with a fork saver.
 
SKF make the green fork and dust seals. They also make awesome wheel bearing seal kits (dual seals) that keep water out.
My local distributor is JWT imports (http://www.jwtimports.com.au/shop/skf-products).

I also run SKF Mud scrapers on my forks. In my experience seals do not fail or wear out that quick. The cause is usually dried mud getting past the seals and contaminating the oil. Then the seals can't retain the gritty oil.
 
ive not long moved over to the skf green seals and my forks just feel at lot better , this was my second set of fork seals in four years so not to bad after all.
skf also make the upper and lower fork bushs which im going try in my 05 forks in the next few weeks.
 
Thanks for the info guys! Last year when the forks were done my guy inspected the fork tubes and had despite not seeming to have any damage he gave them a light polish for good measure. I have since found a local shop that is quite knowledgeable about the Marzocchi forks and they have made the same recommendation of the SKF seals, and to replace the bushings at the same time.

I am going to get a set of fork seal covers and fork seal savers and be a bit more diligent about cleaning them and bleeding the air after each ride.
 
I had the same problem,
1.change fork bushes
2.skf hd fork seals
3.if you have fork air bleeders replacement with screw
No problems after this operations
 
I used to have fork seals fail somewhat frequently on my 07 TE 450. I tried some inexpensive Rocky Mountain MC house brand seals, Tusk....and they are holding up really well. I have gone more than three years on the set I installed.
 
If you remove the fork seal spring, and twist it undone, and cut 2 mm off the square end, re twist them together and install back in seal, the leaking problem of 50mm mozleaky forks is overcome, fit bleeder valves to release pressure, all good.
 
+ 1 on SKF but also make sure to align the front axle and fork tubes with the triple clamps or it can put your seals in a bind and wear your bushings, tubes and seals.
 
By the way just wondering if you are suffering from a bit of grit in the lip of the seal and not seal failure.
If this is a prospect then have a go at the following:
1; drop the fork dust wiper down the fork leg.
2; get some plastic film ie old 33mm camera negative or clear plastic film of similar thickness.
3; use a section about 1 inch wide and about 8 inches long.
4; Round of smoothly the top end (only one end is enough).
5; insert the film into the fork seal by placing it against the lower fork leg and pushing it through about an inch or so.
6; next do a 2 way movement of moving the film up and down the seal whilst gently circumnavigating the fork leg.
7; do this action twice, remove the film and bounce the front forks 3/4 times.
8; repeat the process one or 2 more times.
Hopefully this will clear any grit that is holding the seal lip open enough to ooze the fork oil.
Note: fork oil leakage always looks a lot more has been lost than is the actual case. However if you feel the amount has been more than 5/6mm then top up your forks fluid to the prescribed level.
 
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