Fixing an R80G/S Fork Leak:
A Journey into the World of O-rings and Loctite
I had been looking for a R80G/S for three
or four years and found nothing that grabbed my attention. About a year ago I
managed to find a 1982 R80G/S in pristine condition – or – so I thought. The
bike was located about 100 kilometers West of Brussels in Zwevegem Belgium. I
live in Nürnberg Germany, about 700 kilometers away. The bike appeared to be extreamly
nice, and after several telephone discussions with the owner, I thought it was
“The One”, so… Road Trip.
The bike looked as good in person as it did
in the pictures. I took it for a ride and it ran great. The deal was made,
loaded the bike into the van and headed back to Nürnberg, with a small side
trip to Stuttgart to see a friend.
Upon unloading the G/S at my shop I noticed
a small bit of oil coming from the left fork - from the bottom, not from the top
Slider seal. My first thought was the drain plug was leaking or the Slider
retaining bolt that threads into the damper rod was leaking. Wrong!
When I drained the oil in the left and
right fork legs I found some pretty dirty oil. I replaced the crush rings on
both drain plugs and checked the tightness of the Slider
retaining bolts (damper rod bolts). Here’s where it gets ugly. When I checked
the tightness of the left Slider retaining bolt the Slider Base rotated. This
should not be and I concluded this was the source of the leak.
OK, well this is disappointing. I need to
rebuild the forks. But, no big deal. I’ve rebuilt plenty of forks – BMW and
others.
I pulled the left fork leg off, disassemble
it and clean everything. I did the same for the right side as well with the
assumption if one is leaking, the other one will start as well.
The Marzocchi forks on the early G/S have an unfortunate design in the fork Slider.
There is a Slider Base (sometimes referred to as a “plug”) that is inserted
into the bottom of the Slider. Between the top of this Slider Base and a lip
within the Slider there is an O-ring. It is not in a groove, it just sits on the lip. The top of the Slider
Base has a slight taper and presses against the O-ring, pushing it into the
lip, and the Slider Base is held in place by a circlip. The pictures below show
this configuration clearer. I am not certain if the first cutaway picture is supposed
to be for a R80G/S, but it is the only cutaway picture I could find and it is pretty
darn close. The only difference is that the height of the Slider Base shown in
the cutaway is much lower than on the G/S forks. This discrepancy in this
rendition could be due to the artist’s misunderstanding.
Note:
the height of the Slider Base shown in this picture is much narrower than the
actual height on the G/S fork
Picture
was sent to me by an unknown source, but I believe it came from http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/frontforks.htm
(Robert Fleischer,
AKA
Snowbum)
Left
to Right: Circlip, Slider and Slider Base
Picture
from the Author
Closer
view of Slider with the O-ring in place
Picture
from the Author
Slider
Base inserted into the Slider before the Circlip is inserted
Picture
from the Author
In addition to the circlip, the factory
applied an adhesive to the Slider Base to “permanently bond” it to the Slider.
The permanent bond part is a relative term. Permanent
does not necessarily mean for thirty-five or so years. It seems that when the
adhesive gives up the Slider Base can rotate when the Slider retaining bolt is
tightened and the O-ring may or may not maintain a seal. In this case it did
not.
When I disassembled the forks the left
Slider Base fell out of the Slider. This was a pretty good hint that the
permanent bond was no longer permanent. The right Slider Base came out with
practically no resistance.
OK, simple to fix, right? Get the proper
O-rings and some adhesive and rebuild the Slider. And so, my Journey Into the World of O-Rings and
Loctite began.
The
Hunt for the O-ring and Adhesive Specifications
Upon looking at the parts finch for the G/S
forks I did not see any indication of the Slider Base or the O-ring – only a complete
Slider. I looked at forks for other BMW models as well and found nothing. As
far as I could tell these forks are unique to the G/S model.
After much consultation with people who
know much more than me, I was enlightened about the “permanent bond” theory.
Since this brilliant design idea was considered to be permanent, BMW apparently
decided there was no need to provide repair parts and therefore no specs for
the O-ring size or what type of adhesive to use.
Picture
from BMW Parts Fiche
After numerous search attempts on the Web, numerous
correspondences on the Forums and searches on You Tube, I was eventually advised
to use Loctite 573 for the adhesive. More
on the Loctite 573 later. But, I found no mention of the O-ring size. At least
no one was giving up the answer to the size of the mysterious O-ring.
The Journey
into O-ring World
Fortunately, there is a shop in Nürnberg
that deals in high pressure commercial hosing and fittings. They happen to sell
all manner of O-rings known to mankind. I trotted over to the shop with a
Slider, Slider Base and the old O-ring in a cloth sack (a very common method of
carrying stuff around in Deutschland). My venture into the Über O-ring shop was
a bit of a challenge, as this is not the type of shop that gets walk-in
traffic. It is a shop for trades people, and I suspect most people going in are
regulars. I got a few odd stares, but then a few people sort of gathered
around, interested to know what kind of “high pressure valve” I had brought
into the Über O-ring shop.
With assistance from one of the guys in the
Über O-ring shop we started the Journey of the O-rings. The old O-ring no
longer had a round cross section due to being compressed for thirty-five years.
It was sort of triangular in shape. This made measuring the cross section diameter
a guess. The only thing for certain was the inside diameter of the Slider,
42mm. That became the baseline for choosing an O-ring. Since the cross section diameter was the
mystery, a SWAG (Scientist Wild Ass Guess) was required. After much discussion,
and trial fitting some different size O-rings for fit with the Slider Base
inserted, we decided on a 39mm x 1.5mm O-ring.
A
small side note from my Journey into O-ring World
If you are not familiar with how to measure,
describe and discuss the size of O-rings in a commercial Über O-ring shop, it
goes like this (at least in Germany):
First look at
this picture.
Picture from the Web
You will see an inside diameter (ID), a cross section (CS) and an
outside diameter (OD).
ID + CS + CS = OD
So, a 39mm x 1.5mm O-ring has a 39mm ID and a 42mm OD
39mm + 1.5mm +
1.5mm = 42mm
OK,
back to the O-ring selection
The inside diameter of the Slider where the
Slider Base is inserted is 42mm, so the OD of the O-ring needs to be 42mm. The
outside diameter of the O-ring, as described above, is 42mm. At the top of the Slider
Base is a small taper that allows the Slider Base to slightly fit into the
inside diameter of the O-ring (39mm). Then, when some pressure is applied to
the Slider Base, it pushes the taper farther into the O-ring. Once the Slider
Base is in far enough, it is on the against the Slider lip and the taper section
squishes the O-ring up and out against the lip and side of the Slider, hopefully
forming a seal.
The 39mm x 1.5mm O-ring seemed to fit
correctly, offering some resistance when the Slider Base was pushed into the
Slider, and thus in theory creating the seal between the Slider Base and the Slider
(more on this theory in a moment).
Slider
Base showing the O-ring and taper relationship
Picture
from the Author
Now, back in my shop, with all the parts
clean and dry, I did a trial fit for the O-ring size. With O-ring in place, I inserted
the Slider Base into the Slider. In order to insert the circlip some pressure
was needed to push the Slider Base in far enough and compress the O-ring enough
to get the circlip into the groove. Actually, it took a lot of pressure. I jury
rigged a large wood clamp to apply enough pressure to get the circlip in place.
I had assumed that some amount of interference and pressure would be necessary
in order for the O-ring to seal. The question was how much interference was
needed. Too much interference and there is too much pressure required. At this
point the fit seemed OK, but I was still walking in the dark.
The
Journey into Loctite World
The Slider Base OD is 41.085mm, so it’s a
snug fit into the Slider’s 42mm opening. The gap is .015mm. The Loctite 573
specs say it will fill gaps up to a .025. Good to go.
I decided to go ahead and assemble the
pieces with the Loctite 573 that I had ordered on Amazon. More to come on the
Loctite selection. Everything was thoroughly cleaned, and cleaned again with Loctite 7063. The Loctite was applied in
a thin, even layer to the outside diameter of the Slider Base and it was
inserted while carefully rotating to spread the adhesive evenly. Using the jury
rig wood clamp, I compressed the Slider Base enough to insert the circlip (this
took some grunt) and then sat the Slider to the side. The Loctite 573 takes
about 96 hours to fully cure. Next step was to repeat the procedure on the
other Slider.
After I allowed time for the Loctite to
cured I reassembled the forks, reinstalled them on the bike and put in the
proper amount of oil. I pumped the forks up and down for five minutes (my work
out for the month) and no leak from either side. YEAH SUCCESS!... Wrong again.
I took the bike for a twenty kilometer ride
and when I returned both forks were seeping oil. I went home and had a beer.
After having given great deal of thought to
my predicament I was back in the shop the following day. I pulled the forks off
the bike and carefully disassembled them. What I found confirmed that the leak
was coming from between the Slider and Slider Base.
It turns out that the Loctite 573 does not
cure hard, but stays rather slightly tacky. I went on the Loctite Web Page and
read a bit about 573. It is designed to be a gasket application where there may
or may not be gasket material, such as paper, etc., and two parts will be
disassembled at some time in the future. Therefore, it is not intended to cure
hard and solid.
I got in contact with the Loctite folks at
Henkel and asked a few questions. The answer came back that the right choice
would be Loctite 638. It is intended
for slip fit applications where the inserted piece is intended to stay solid.
If you look at the picture on the Loctite containers there is actually a
pictogram that gives you a pretty good hint.
Note
the pictogram on the 638 and 573
Picture
from the Author
So, off to Amazon again to order Loctite
638. By the way, this stuff is expensive. The two bottles of 638 and 573, 50 ml
each, cost nearly €75. It took a couple of weeks to get the 638 (I suspect that
Loctite was making an order just for me). However, that gave me time to think
about the O-ring thing again.
Return
to the Journey into O-ring World
It did not make sense to me that, even
though the Loctite 573 may not be the best solution, the oil would leak between
the Slider and Slider Base with an O-ring properly in place. At least, not
immediately. This gave rise to the idea that the O-ring was the wrong size –
more specifically, the cross section was too large. If this was the case, the
inside diameter of the O-ring would be too small for the taper of the Slider
Base to slip into correctly and the excessive pressure require against the Slider
Base to get it in far enough to insert the circlip might be distorting or pinching
the O-ring in a way that does not provide a seal.
I was pretty convinced of my new theory.
The O-ring still needed to be 42mm OD, so this means I need a 40mm x 1mm
O-ring. Back I went to the Über O-ring shop to buy a few 40mm x 1mm O-rings.
Round
Two
The Loctite 638 arrived and I had the new O-rings.
Time to test my new theory.
First. I did a trial fit with the 40mm x
1mm O-rings. I spread a very thin coat of white lithium grease on the taper
section of the Slider Base to use as a telltale. I placed an O-ring into the
Slider and then inserted the Slider base. With a minimal amount of pressure,
the Slider Base went far enough in to insert the circlip.
I removed the circlip and Slider Base and
it appeared that the white lithium grease telltale transferred to the O-ring
was distributed in a way that would work to provide a seal.
Next was to clean everything up properly
and reassemble with the new O-rings and Loctite 638.
I got a good feeling about the Loctite 638.
After spreading a thin even coat on the Slider Base, I partially inserting it
into the Slider and carefully rotated it slowly to spread the adhesive. I
continued doing this as I pushed the Slider Base farther into the Slider, but
not too far. I did not want to disturb the O-ring with the twisting motion. I
could feel the adhesive starting to cure and drag a little – this good I
thought. Once the Slider Base was in, it only took a little finger pressure to
allow the circlip to be inserted.
I repeated this assembly on the other
Slider and then once again let the Loctite cure for 96 hours.
Once the cure time was finished I
reassembled the forks and installed them on the bike, added oil and went for a
ride.
YIPEE… NO LEAKS… And still no leaks after a
couple more rides.
The jury is out on the Loctite 573 virus
Loctite 638. The 573 may have been just fine and the real problem was the
incorrect O-ring. However, because the original factory assembly had the Slider
Base bonded to the Slider I feel better with the 638.
And finally, my Journey into the World O-rings and Loctite came to an end.
