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Hi. Bought a brand new 2020 FLHTK w/ 2 miles in February of this year. Now has 6,200 miles and I'm putting in a set of Legend AXEO fork cartridges. I drained the factory fork oil from each fork and saw this:
The right fork had clear bright red fork oil. The left fork oil was brown and completely different color.
At first I thought maybe the brown oil was contaminated. After splitting the forks that doesn't seem to be the case though. Neither side shows much wear or has any "shavings". Far as I can tell, MoCo used two different kinds of fork oil in each fork. I find this really odd. Anyone else seen something like this? Thanks!
The off colored oil (non red) looks to be contaminated with moisture.
Thanks for the reply! Didn't think about moisture. So the red oil turns brown when exposed to moisture? I didn't notice any leaks in the seals prior to disassembly.
I searched around some more and did find others with similar issue:
Thank you for your inquiry and business with Legend Suspensions.
I honestly have not seen the oil be different colors in the two sides, generally, they are both brownish. From the factory, they may have used a different color in the one side of yours, not sure! We recommend changing the oil in the forks at your normal service intervals. However, when you install our cartridges, all the oil is doing is lubricating the seals and bushings since our design is internal within the cartridges.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions.
Very Respectfully,
I did email Legend suspension this morning and asked if they have seen this issue. Hoping they might be able to shed some light.
I meant the vendor that sold you the bike.
regardless you have them all disassembled and starting from scratch so you know what’s in there going forward.
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Factory fork oil different in each fork?
