My left front fork had been seeping since October. It started gushing last weekend. Reddish brown crud all down the fork leg. I was very concerned that I had picked up a nicked fork(we have a lot of gravel trucks and oil field trucks on the highways around my area.)

I assembled the necessary parts, tools and fluids and tackled the repair job this week. I want to thank all the posts on this website that gave me clues/hints/insight into some trouble spots. They were all most helpful.

When I got to the leaking fork, I found evidence of an intrusion in the dust cap cover, dust seal, fork seal and fork seal seat inside the slider. It looks like I might have sprayed a piece of grit or sand or ??? into the dust seal when I was washing my Dyna at a car wash. I usually only use the low pressure setting on the washing wand. Some foreign object had worked past the dust seal and eaten into the fork seal. It had ruptured and was the source of my slowly over time developing leak. No scratches on the tube, thank gooodness! I have worked on front forks before on my other motorcycles(honda, yamaha, etc) but I have never seen a seal blown like this.

Just something different that I wanted to share with members of this forum.

Oh, some of the helpful hints include:
1. use the fork trees to hold the tubes while breaking torque on the 12mm bolt at the bottom of the forks.
2. slide the forks down but not out of the trees and use the trees to break torque on the 35mm fork tube cap.
3. Clean everything!!
4. Reassemble the fork after draining the oil, to remove the 12mm dampener bolt.
5. Drink your favorite beverage.
6. Use a piece from a plastic grocery bag over the fork end when sliding the new seal onto the slider tube.
7. To more quickly install the fork tube caps, hold down the preload pressure and rotate the tube counter clockwise until it "clicks" and then rotate clockwise to install the cap on the fork tube.(hope i don't have that backwards)
8. I made a measuring tool out of a paint stirring stick. Just marked down 4.3 inches and kept checking and pouring until the bottom of the stick got wet. Pretty painless, took 5 minutes.

Some unexpected things.
1. The left hand fork tube needs a 12mm extended bit socket(2.5 inches minimum shaft) to reach the dampener rod bolt. I ended up finding a 12mm allen key. I will be buying the correct socket soon.
2. I knew that the toughest job was the preload and screwing on the fork tube caps. I still managed to carve a nice divot out of my right hand index knuckle. Hurt like hell... I guess I am "blooded" by this motorcycle now!
3. The dampener tube kept spinning and not catching the bolt during reassembly. I carved an angle on a paint stick(I had some laying around) and jammed it into the top of the dampener rod while threading the bolt. Worked okay, but I think I am going to dress down a wooden dowel for next time.
4. The pictures in my shop manual(boy has that paid for itself) were a little unclear about where to put a washer during reassembly. I read the correct order in the written directions, but tried to second guess myself while looking at the diagram. I had to pull the cap off the first fork I finished and put the washer under the tension tube and above the spring. When I disassembled this first fork, I was tired and didn't pay attention to what order everything came out of the tube.
5. After 26K miles, the fork oil still had a red pigment too it, but it was going dark. I should have done this sooner.

I will post a picture of the ruptured seal as soon as my batteries recharge for my camera.

Ride Safe!