Another XT600e question ( 2003 ) re fork seals
 

On my recently acquired a 2003 xt600e I noticed one fork seal was leaking so I looked on the fiche and found the number to order. When trying to order I found the part had been superseded by a new version which was promptly ordered . The problem I've had is that after removing the old one and refitting the new, the dust seal on top seems to sit higher than before and it's very difficult to seat the retaining clip . Before you ask ...yes I've knocked the new seal in as far as possible and greased the seat beforehand .
Anyone else had this experience/problem ?
thanks
Bill

Theres 2 sizes of fork seals, so youre not the first.

I just trimmed mine slightly with a knife, they've been good for years.

Did you trim the oil seal or the dust cover?

Just a sanity check here for you, based on the seals fitted to my old 43F when I first got it.

There is a right and wrong way up. The seal has a flat face one side and a channel the other side. The channel points down the fork towards the wheel spindle.

This way, the oil under pressure goes in to the channel and opens the seal against the tube and stanchion maintaining the seal as pressure increases.

If the seal goes in upside down the reverse happens, oil pressure closes the channel and lets oil past. Down the fork leg and on to the brake. Once oil is in the pads, no amount of petrol soaking and blow torch fun (even both at the same time!) will save the pads.

Apologies if this is obvious to you, but it clearly wasn't to the previous owner of that bike and maybe other readers of this thread.

I trimmed about 1mm of the oilseal itself.