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Old 04-05-2008, 09:45 AM   #1
coot   coot is offline
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Rear shock oil leak?

Moved Nomad from garage two days ago to find oil on floor near starboard side rear air shock. Checked air pressure with zero loss pump and it still held normal 15 lb psi. Found oil on tire, bottom of swing arm, and lower shock bolt. Appears to be shock seal leak.

Question: 1. Is it possible to lose oil and not lose air?
2. Is oil and air in same chamber?
3. If oil seal is leaking, can I replace seal.
4. If seal can be replaced, how do I replace oil?
5. Parts fiche shows seals at mounting bolts. Is
this correct?

Would appreciate any suggestions. Bike is an 06 with 10k miles.
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Old 04-05-2008, 09:56 AM   #2
macmac   macmac is offline
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Rear shock oil leak?

I can't see any way to loose oil, and have any air in the system.. I don't believe you can rebuild the shock either. I could be wrong....

What I think happpened is long ago you checked the air pressure, and forgot. Maybe with warmed up shocks, and the valve spit, and now you are finding what ran down from the air inlet. Of course that is a wild guess too, but it is my best guess.

Adding oil will be very hard to do, since you can't tell how much you need to add. If there was some way to even know how much was supposed to be inside, then you would have to pull the air inlet, and drain the shock. Then you could add more in the same way, which would likely take a long time. The system would get air bound adding oil, and you would have to allow the air out to get more oil in.

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Old 04-05-2008, 10:44 AM   #3
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Rear shock oil leak?

Question: 1. Is it possible to lose oil and not lose air?
For a while, if the leak is at the bottom, until all the oil runs out, and then the air will follow.
2. Is oil and air in same chamber?
Yes
3. If oil seal is leaking, can I replace seal.
No. These things are not designed to be rebuildable.
4. If seal can be replaced, how do I replace oil?
As Mac said, we don't know how much oil is in it. I'm not going to drain one to find out either, as it would take forever. You could add oil, but the amount would only be a guess.
5. Parts fiche shows seals at mounting bolts. Is
this correct?
Those are isolation bushings. They don't seal anything. They just prevent clunking and wear by eliminating metal-to-metal contact.

OK, if you see oil at the bottom of the shock and it's not dripping down from the top of the shock somewhere, and you've still got some air pressure, I'd be concerned that there's a crack in a weld or the shock body itself.

I'd take it off, clean it up really well, maybe dust around the lower eyelet & body weld with talcum, hang it right side up over some clean paper, pump it up to 45 lbs, and let it just hang there overnight to see if it's really leaking and from where.

Meantime, take a look at your final drive unit. Are you sure this is shock oil and not gear oil?

It's easy to overfill the gearbox and then oil will force out the pinion shaft seal, and into the dirveshaft tube (which is the left arm of the swingarm.) There's no real seal between the swingarm and final drive case: just a thin metal shim, and it will often leak a little oil at that crack if the 4 acorn nuts attaching the drive unit are not tightened properly.
 
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Old 04-05-2008, 11:09 AM   #4
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Rear shock oil leak?

Checked final drive oil at time of discovery of oil on floor and it was full. There was maybe an ounce of oil that leaked out and it was an amber color and did not match drive oil. Bike had been leaning on side stand, and oil was on the high side of bike.

Cleaned shock and wrapped paper towel around lower end. Next day, towel showed sign of additional oil.

Checked air pressure again today, still holding at 15 lb.
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Old 04-05-2008, 11:48 AM   #5
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Rear shock oil leak?

Yeah, that sounds like the shock for sure. You only need to lose a tiny volume of oil to make a spot on the paper (not that that's good mind you) but you need to lose a much larger volume for the air pressure to fall noticibly.

I think this shock has a crack in it, somewhere around the bottom, or else you'd be losing the air first & not the oil. You might even be looking at impending catastrophic failure if it's the eylet weld cracking. I'm not saying you'll necessarily crash and die if it breaks through the weld, but a loose shock on a rough road could beat things up badly by the time you got stopped. Things like brake hoses and expensive saddle bags.

Those darn shocks are expensive too (over $400 each for my bike) , but you might find some nice used ones for sale, because guys who lower their bikes often replace the air shocks with the short Progressive Suspension shocks.

By the way, do you have a shock balancing kit installed on this bike? Just curious.



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Old 04-05-2008, 11:49 AM   #6
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Rear shock oil leak?

Eh...could just be the rod seal too. Hard to tell unless you take it off the bike. Still I don't think you can do anything about that seal.
 
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Old 04-05-2008, 11:51 AM   #7
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Rear shock oil leak?

Also, being a boat owner, I should know what the starboard side is

I just never use those terms when talking about bikes and it threw me off. ::)
 
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Old 04-05-2008, 12:02 PM   #8
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Rear shock oil leak?

Yes, I do have the shock balance kit. Sorry about using starboard, but it seem the most accurate term to avoid confusion.

Not surprised to hear replacement cost at $400.00. If it comes to that, I will look at used.

I do appreciate your help.
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Old 04-05-2008, 12:15 PM   #9
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Rear shock oil leak?

I just recieved the golden age, err no the good times plan in the mail for my 06 green nad.. before I dropped a buck on shocks as you must replace both, if you replace 1, I would look into getting that.

I thought my warrenty went dry last Oct!

There are those who say you don't need it. I am not so sure 'we' don't need it. My 01 was bought used and that program came to me with it, and in Cal, that program bought me a drive shaft which was defective. These parts are not5 cheap!

The good times is less right from ma kawii. I hear it can be had from e-bay, but I don't know that because I don't 'do' e-bay (gun thing, you mess about make rules, and regs concerning guns, and you don't get my business)

I am trying to decide if I want the plan or not as I type. I don't really want to pay that much, but it is less than 800 bucks!

To use it, the problem I have is I don't like dealer techs touching my bike for anything.

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Old 04-05-2008, 12:53 PM   #10
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Rear shock oil leak?

Shock absorbers are known to wear out, and are probably excluded from warranty as "normal wear and tear items".

After fixing my own driveshaft, Mac, I am now sure we could have fixed yours in an hour without spending a cent. Too bad I didn't know that at the time. We could have avoided dealing with the dealer completely.

I never bought the extended warranty, and never even used the original warranty when I might have (just fixing the problems myself) but I am not your average bear either. I don't have full coverage insurance either. In addition, if the Nomad blew up or vanished tomorrow, I could afford to replace it without taking a loan.

But for the average consumer the extended warranty is still probably a very good deal on these bikes if you have a good honest dealer and one that you trust to fix your bike correctly.

If you live in North Nebraska, however, I'd consider it a waste of dough. Eh mac?
 
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Old 04-05-2008, 12:57 PM   #11
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Rear shock oil leak?


Quote:
Yes, I do have the shock balance kit. Sorry about using starboard, but it seem the most accurate term to avoid confusion...
It is. That somehow didn't prevent me from being confused.

If you have the balance kit, then the shocks share pressure, and a minor leak from one will eventually drain both. Also, those things are known to leak easily, unless you glue them down as I did. Are you 100% certain that the oil isn't originating at the little fittings?
 
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Old 04-05-2008, 03:32 PM   #12
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Rear shock oil leak?

I'm pretty sure the fittings are not leaking, but, I will double check.
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Old 04-05-2008, 07:16 PM   #13
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Rear shock oil leak?

There are not very many people living in north Nebraska, or south South Dakota for that matter.
 
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Old 04-05-2008, 08:13 PM   #14
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Rear shock oil leak?


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There are not very many people living in north Nebraska, or south South Dakota for that matter.
I know.

Some doofus dealership up there worked on Mac's bike, and it was not a good experience for him. I was just rubbing salt in an old wound.
 
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Old 04-06-2008, 07:06 AM   #15
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Rear shock oil leak?

Coot; I blew a seal on one of mine, too; on a trip last fall. I went a different route, and bought a set of new-take-off Harley touring shocks on ebay from a company that does trike conversions on new Harleys. They are almost identical length, and hold more air volume. I only had to change out the isolator bushings to fit them on. So far I'm very happy with them, and cost was 50.00 plus shipping.
 
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