Maybe this isn't a secret to anybody else, but I only learned of these things a couple months ago when my mechanically inept friend brought one over along with a fork that was pissing like it was full of beer.
When he insisted he was going to fix his "blown out" seal by sticking a piece of plastic in it and cleaning it I laughed out loud at him. Sure enough he made one rotation with his $20 Seal Doctor and the leak stopped and he hasn't lost a drop of oil since.
Unfortunately his Seal Doctor is 48mm specific and all my stuff is 43mm, so I purchased a Seal Mate for $10 and today I fixed three leaking forks in less than 45 minutes including R&R the guards and putting away the tools.
It doesn't work quite as sanitarily as the video would suggest, but it does work. If you're going to do this watch the video first, but be prepared for a fair amount of oil to leak out and to have to work the fork up and down as much as 50 times to get the seal lip back in place, or even to clean it a second time depending what came out on the first revolution. Also be sure to use it on the dust seal before you put it back up as it's likely full of crud.
The Seal Doctor is a much better design if you have 48mm forks, but when beggars can't be choosers there's the Seal Mate.
On the topic of forks Shock Soxs neoprene wipers are awesome, but you need to buy the removable Velcro ones (not the cheaper tubular ones) and remove them after every ride and wash them and never leave them on when wet. The only reason my fork was leaking was that I forgot to put them back on the last time I rode.
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Originally Posted by shortline10
